Protect and Kill
by ohmytheon
Summary: When FBI Agent Uraraka is assigned to watch over Bakugou, a difficult and violent prone witness and assassin, both of them get more than they bargained for when the safe house is attacked by people trying to silence him.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:** I'm not gonna lie, but the first thought I had when getting the prompts "Bodyguard AU" + "I didn't mean to turn you on", it was going to be Bakugou as the bodyguard, but then I accidentally thought of the Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson movie, "The Bodyguard," and well... The rest is history. I had fun with this one. It couldn't just stay at one chapter. Luckily, I had a prompt that worked out for a second.

 **Disclaimer:** I own nothing.

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Bakugou let out a groan for what sounded like the thousandth time and it was beginning to make Uraraka twitch. He couldn't just be a regular person under witsec. No, he had to be difficult. He had to make things harder than necessary. He had to push all of her buttons. If he could just keep his head down and not go out of his way to actively cause trouble, then this would be fine, but no, she was stuck...babysitting a temperamental, arrogant asshat.

Who just so happened to own a lot of guns, almost all of them illegal-grade.

"I don't understand why you're here," Bakugou complained, leaning back in his chair on two legs. It looked dangerous, but instead of warning him, Uraraka absentmindedly wished that it would slip out from underneath him and he'd fall and hit his head. So much for protecting him. It wasn't her fault if he hurt himself by being an idiot in his own home. "I can protect myself just fine."

"At this point, I'm not even here to keep a potential threat out," Uraraka told him, returning to the book in her hands. For a paid assassin, he owned a surprising amount of them, different genres too, both fiction and non-fiction. She wouldn't have guessed him for a reader, but then, she supposed that there was a lot of downtime in between figuring out kills. "I'm here to keep you in and make sure you don't cause more damage."

Bakugou pointed a chopstick at her. "Hey, I'm not just gonna let them come and try to take me out like some sitting duck. It's best to just take them out first."

"You went directly to one of their safehouses to blow it up," Uraraka pointed out without looking back up at him.

"It's called initiative."

"It's called stupidity and it won't be tolerated." Uraraka turned the page. She had learned to read and have a conversation back at the Academy when guys in her class would try to bother her since she was one of the few women in it. "We're trying to arrest these guys with your testimony, not kill them before we can even put them on the stand. You came to us for a reason."

He huffed. "Yeah, but I didn't think I'd get sacked with an agent with a stick up her ass."

Uraraka scowled at him over the top of the book. "Very funny."

"I bet you've never even used your gun," Bakugou taunted. He leaned forward, the other two legs of his chair slamming on the ground. "Do you even know how hand-to-hand combat?" Uraraka refused to deem him with an answer, which he took as a no and caused him to let out a noise of disapproval. So what if he assumed wrong? That was his fault for thinking poorly of her. She didn't have anything to prove to him. "They just stuck you here with me because you're the best at nagging while all the boys have the fun."

"Maybe so."

She sure would've preferred to being in the field than in here. He wasn't just stuck with her; she was stuck with him. He was so cocky. The first few days had been spent avoiding him and keeping him in the house, which had turned into a tense game where he would do whatever he could to throw her off and she'd get in his way. His latest tactic had been to insult her and wear her thick skin down, but the truth was that, despite being a ghost for most of his career, she knew more about him than he knew about her. All he had were assumptions based on her professional behavior and dress.

Bakugou leaned forward, propping his forearms on his knees. "Seriously, you must've done something to piss your superiors off to get stuck with babysitting duties." Uraraka tried not to react, but bristled anyways, which caused a knowing grin to appear on his face. "Oh, what did you do? File the wrong paperwork?"

"It's none of your concern."

(She might have ignored an order and jumped into the crossfire to pull a kid out of harm's way. It wouldn't have been so bad had she not got stuck in a gunfight that ended with one of their perps getting taken down. Still, she hadn't been about to let an innocent kid get hurt just because their father was an up and coming drug lord and the asshole had thought it was appropriate to bring his kid to work.)

A sound from outside pulled her attention away from the book. She glanced at the window and then connected eyes with Bakugou, who had sat up straight. "Did you hear-?"

There was a loud crash as something was thrown the window. Before Uraraka could react, Bakugou threw himself at her, knocking her out of her chair and using his body as a shield over hers and the flashbang grenade went off. Covered by Bakugou, she wasn't hit by the direct light, but the bang still left her ears ringing. A second later, she heard the sound of the back door being kicked open and Bakugou practically jumped off of her, yelling, "Get to cover!" as he snatched a gun taped on the underside of his kitchen table and bolted out of the room.

Contrary to what Bakugou had told her and what he believed her capable of, Uraraka did no such thing. She was on her feet by the time the front door was broken into, service weapon in hand, and shot the first person that came through the door. Bullets were fired in her direction, forcing her to dive behind the couch. Instead of hiding though, she grabbed his lamp and chucked it over the couch. She heard it crash into whoever had shot at her and then she popped up to shoot them as well.

Somewhere in the back of the house, Bakugou was currently engaged in his own gunfight. Before she could take more than two steps to back him up, she was struck in the back, causing her to drop her gun, and a rope was thrown around her throat and she barely managed to put a hand in between the rope and her neck. It still caused her to choke, her knuckles digging into her trachea as she fought against it. Her back slammed into the firm chest of a man larger and stronger than her. When she stomped on his foot, he cringed, but didn't let go.

Quickly running out of air, Uraraka shoved back as hard as she could so that the man choking her slammed into the bookcase and he grunted in pain. A shower of books tumbled over them, hitting them both, but that wasn't what she was aiming for. With her free hand, she reached back to fumble on the bookcase until she grasped the snowglobe and threw it back to bash it into her attacker's face. It shattered against his nose, water, fake snow, and blood splashing on her head and he loosened his grip just enough for her to slip out from under the rope.

She had no idea where her gun had gone to, so instead of searching for it, she flipped over one of the couch cushions and picked up the large bowie knife that she'd found hidden a few days ago. He had weapons tucked away all over the place. His M.O. said that he preferred weapons that packed a punch, but he liked to diversify, in his own words. She held the knife up, prepared to defend herself with it.

"Sure you know how to use that, doll?" her attacker snarled viciously as he pulled out a much larger knife.

It did nothing to deter Uraraka from groaning, like she wasn't in the middle of a fight for her life. "Why must you assholes always insist on giving me a pet name?"

When he moved to attack her, she dodged him deftly. He might have been larger than her, but she was quicker. She hadn't always been fast, but her training at the Academy had taught her well and she'd honed her skills. He kept trying to attack her with jabs, but then she'd slice her knife, catching him on his outstretched arms and once across the gut. However, one time he feigned a jab and kicked her in the chest instead, sending her flying back against the wall. He started forward and she threw the knife at him, striking him right in the eye. He halted, as if shocked, and then collapsed to the ground.

"Holy shit."

Uraraka's eyes flickered up from the dead man to Bakugou, who had been standing behind him and had a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, ready to save her. There was blood spattered all over him. How many people had he shot back there? Shit, this was going to be one mess of a report. What she noticed the most though was the surprised look on his face, his eyebrows raised, his red eyes wide, and his mouth parted as he stared at her in disbelief.

Letting out a breath, Uraraka wiped her face, only to smear blood on it further. Well, this outfit was effectively ruined. Luckily she had about five spares in her closet.

"I was very wrong about you," Bakugou said.

Uraraka let out a very unlady-like snort. "I guess so."

"That was, quite possibly, the hottest thing I've ever seen."

Despite the situation and herself and the person saying it, Uraraka blushed. Truth be told, it had been a long time since any guy had said something even remotely close to that to her. Long gone were the days of silly crushes and light-hearted romances. There wasn't the time for that in her line of work and all the guys she worked with either thought of her as "one of the guys" or called her frigid because she was bossy and had turned down all of their advances.

Even worse, Bakugou wasn't even hiding how turned on he felt, staring at her with such open wanting that it left her feeling exposed. She'd just killed three men, for god's sake. She should not be acting like this!

"You wanna hit the shower before we call the clean-up crew?"

Uraraka folded her arms across her chest. "That's highly inappropriate."

"That's kind of the point," Bakugou replied, a grin appearing on his face. "I change my mind. I'm definitely glad you're here."

This was going to end badly for everyone involved, but for a brief moment, as a mirroring grin worked its way onto her face, Uraraka didn't care. Katsuki Bakugou was bad news. He had done a lot of bad things. He was, by every definition, a bad person and the fact that she had to protect someone with a litany of accusations behind him made her skin crawl.

Apparently not in an entirely unpleasant way either.

Oh, this was bad. This was very bad.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes:** Actually, fencer29, I'm having a lot of fun writing this, so no, I'm not gonna quit while I'm ahead. This is just for fun. Crack is crack. Luckily, I had this chapter written already. Got the prompt "Is that a threat?" + Kacchako. Thanks for reading!

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Ever since taking out that hit squad at Bakugou's home three days ago, everything had turned on its end between Uraraka and Bakugou.

The main thing was that he was no longer insulting her, so that was an improvement, but it had turned into him trying to needle her for more information about her background. He was endlessly curious and, even worse, tenacious in his desire to learn. That must have been why he was so skilled in a shocking array of weaponry and knowledgeable of it too. He must have been a nightmare to his arms dealer.

Another thing was that he was pressing harder to attack the people trying to kill him. Now that he knew she was much more capable of taking care of business than the other suits he was used to dealing with, he was adamant that they need to strike soon and strike hard.

One thing could be said about Bakugou and that it was he was very proactive. He wasn't one to be idle. He was ambitious in his plans and desires. Most men in his line of work dreamed that ridiculous dream of making enough money to buy a mansion on an island, retire, and get out of the business. Bakugou had no such plans. Of course, he never outright admitted to any of the hired hits that he was accused of, but even if he had, it wouldn't matter. His testimony against one of the largest terrorist organizations in history, along with multiple high-ranking corrupt government officials around the world, was enough to wipe any slate clean, even one as soaked as his.

She should hate him for that. She should hate him for his aggressive personality, his unrelenting nature that never gave her a break, his casual affair with violence, his refusal to listen to simple orders, his disregard for most morals ("I would never kill a kid or an animal. Who the fuck does that? Women? I'm not with that bullshit. I've been stabbed by a woman. They can be just as evil as men if they want to be, just differently."), and yet…

Try as she might, she didn't hate him. Maybe it was because Uraraka found it difficult to hate people. Certain criminals were easy to hate. He should've been one of them, but he wasn't and she found that frustrating in itself. Every time he threw a smirk in her direction, she wanted to slap it right off his face and would instead take a deep breath and turn away from him because she also wanted to do other things and she did not like them one bit.

Maybe her colleagues were right. Maybe she'd been frigid for too long if this bastard was started to look appealing.

"Come on, you've gotta tell me something," Bakugou insisted, getting far too close to her on the couch. If he got any closer, he'd be in her lap. Maybe that was the point. Still, all she could do was not react. If she got up or pushed him away, he'd know that he had gotten to her. "Where did you learn knife skills like that? Because I've never seen a Suit work a knife like that."

Uraraka rolled her eyes to him. "Who says I'm just a Suit?"

A manic grin worked its way onto Bakugou's face. "Feisty, are we? That's not Suit-like behavior at all, I will admit, although you're such a stickler for rules."

"They're there for a reason." And it was a reason that she mostly followed.

"Yeah, to be bent for one's personal goals."

Uraraka gave him a sideways, unamused look and then stood up, acting as if she needed to stretch. Maybe it would give him the satisfaction of feeling like he'd gotten under her skin, but she needed her space. He had been ignoring personal space since then, using every excuse in the book to get close to her or touch her. It had affected her in unexpected ways. Realizing that it had been years since a man had put his hand on the small of her back had been startling. Finding out that her body turned to his out of instinct was even worse. It felt like a betrayal.

This whole thing wasn't ideal at all. Her boss had not been pleased at all by the outcome of the hit squad. He'd been happy that they were alive, but then there had been eight bodies to take care of. She honestly couldn't tell if Aizawa had been more frustrated that she had taken out three of them or that Bakugou had taken out five. He was supposed to be under protection, not racking up his body count. Not to mention that they'd been forced to relocate and Bakugou hadn't been happy about that. She had a feeling it had to do with the lack of a cache of hidden weapons.

Not one to give up so easily, Bakugou eyed her like a wolf might a deer (or a mate) and then jumped to his feet. "You didn't learn that at the Academy. That's for damn sure." No, she hadn't. She had learned how to use a knife in her youth, back when she had lived on the wrong side of town. "That was an inborn skill, if I've ever seen one." He got in her space again, flexing his hands like he meant to put them on her hips, and she glared up at him, arms crossed over her chest. "Now what kind of girl with a skill like that goes federal?"

"I don't know," Uraraka countered, doing her best to ignore him. "What kind do you think?"

Every warning sign was going off in her head, but for what, she didn't know. Katsuki Bakugou was dangerous, she told herself. They didn't even have a number on his confirmed kills and none of them could even be fully confirmed to be connected to him. He could kill as quick as he could smirk and he didn't even need a weapon. She had been told to keep a respectable distance from him, which he had been ignoring and she had not been fighting against like she should have.

This was a terrible idea. She was not acting in her best judgement. She should request to be taken off this bodyguard duty immediately.

(She never reached for her phone.)

"I think," Bakugou drawled, lifting a hand to tug on her hair that framed her face, "that you've got a lot hidden underneath that suit of yours and I'm not just talking about those curves."

Uraraka rolled her eyes. "Is that the best you've got?"

Bakugou almost growled, his grin turning almost feral. "If you want more, I can give you that."

"Is that a threat?" Uraraka asked, her face a mask of unimpressed indifference even while her heart was thumping wildly in her chest. She wasn't used to having to act this unaffected. She was the type of person that admittedly wore her heart on her sleeve, but ever since coming here, she'd had to shove everything in a box that now felt fit to burst.

"Oh, I can do more than that, Angel Face," Bakugou told her and she knew that he meant every word of it. Even more frustrating, she wasn't pissed off over the little nickname that he tagged her with, not like she normally was. What was wrong with her?

Luckily (or perhaps not), her phone rang in that moment, its piercing ring cutting through the tension. Bakugou wiped his face and took a step back as Uraraka let out a breath and pulled her phone out of her back pocket. It was Aizawa. Of course it was him. He always had some sort of psychic timing when it came to his agents getting into hot water. He'd actually called when the hit squad had attacked them, but she'd been too preoccupied with not getting strangled to death to notice.

Uraraka turned away from Bakugou. "Yes, sir?"

"How are things at the new place?" Aizawa asked, getting straight to the point.

"Fine so far," Uraraka told him. "Nothing suspicious to report."

Except for Bakugou's absurd behavior with her, but she was not about to get into that. When she glanced back at him, he had his hands in his pockets and almost looked innocent, except for that gleam in his red eyes that had her frowning.

"He's not giving you a hard time, is he?"

Uraraka actually let out a low laugh. "Define 'hard time'."

Behind her, Bakugou cackled. "I could do that." She most definitely ignored that.

"Midoriya will be there to replace you at 0500 hours."

That made Uraraka grin a little. "He won't be pleased about that."

"He better not be telling you that Midoriya is your replacement!" Bakugou snapped viciously, his sense of humor dying immediately. Sometimes, karma was a bitch and other times it worked in mysterious ways. This was clearly payback for his outrageousness and Uraraka would bask in it.

After answering a few more questions, Aizawa was more or less satisfied and ended the phone call. By the time she slid the phone back in her pocket and turned back around, Bakugou had his arms folded across his chest and was scowling at her, which only made her grin even more. Oh, how the mighty had fallen. She would revel in this moment, no matter how childish it made her look. He was the one acting like a brat right now.

"You're cold-hearted, Special Agent Uraraka," he told her, displeasure dripping on every word.

"I'm being paid to protect you, not please your every whim," Uraraka said.

Bakugou glared at her. "I wouldn't have to pay you for that."

"You couldn't afford me," she responded, brushing past him so that she could do a perimeter check.

As she opened the door, Bakugou called out, "I'm pretty sure you'd be paying me after I was done with you," and Uraraka had to storm out of the house so that he wouldn't catch her blushing. If he wasn't killed before the end of this trial, there was a high chance that she would do it for them. He was just trying to push all of her buttons and set her off. Even worse, she kind of liked it. Damnit.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes:** I was given the prompts "Criminal AU" + "It's Not You, It's my Enemies" + Kacchako. I saw the opportunity to write another chapter for this fic and I took it. No regrets.

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After three weeks of being stuck in a safehouse with Katsuki Bakugou, (alleged) world class assassin for hire, with only two other agents as her replacements, Special Agent Uraraka had grown restless. It wasn't like her to get so fidgety, but Bakugou had a way of getting under her skin and he was particularly skilled at it. Of course, it didn't help that he was trying to get under her clothes and her body was responding to it in ways that she'd never once imagined. Just when she thought she had a handle on things, he would do or say something and her mind would take a swan dive into a very inappropriate place.

Maybe Agent Midoriya was right. Maybe she did need to live a little and go on a date. After all, if she was having ridiculously dirty dreams about the asshole that she was protecting, then her mind was off. How in the hell could she find him so attractive? Even subconsciously?

Bakugou was growing even more restless than her, but he tended to act like he might kill someone when he got like this. Being cooped up in an unfamiliar place was making him aggravated and touchy to the point where she was concerned about whether or not there would be an agent for her to replace whenever she showed up for her shift. The last time she'd come to relieve Midoriya, they had been in the middle of a heated argument about soft versus hard shell tacos. Clearly, Bakugou needed to get out.

After receiving permission from Aizawa, Uraraka was to escort Bakugou out in public for the first time. It could be dangerous, so they'd been given disguises. How a trip to the store could turn into disaster might have been beyond some people, but Uraraka knew that bad men could lurk in the most normal of places. He needed time out of the safehouse in order to remain appeased and the powers that be needed him that way in order for him to continue talking. A small trip out and about was all that he'd asked for. Aizawa hadn't thought it was a good idea, but he'd been overrun and that was that.

"You look good as a blonde, Agent," Bakugou teased as they strolled down the sidewalk.

Uraraka rolled her eyes. "Don't call me that in public."

"My apologies, _Ochako_ ," Bakugou drawled, a smirk on his face. Uraraka pressed her lips together and said nothing in response to that. She should've expected that blow, but it still sent a thrill down her spine. "You need to relax. You're so stiff. Everyone's going to think that we're fighting and will get curious."

The fact that he was right irritated her, but she took a breath and dropped her shoulders, relaxing her body from the tension that had her muscles so tight. "What did you need from the store anyways?"

"Just something to remind me of home," Bakugou responded. It was such a sentimental statement that she immediately grew suspicious over it. If there was one thing that he was not, it was a man of sentiment. He didn't have time to be so in his line of work. It was kill or don't get paid. Well, his alleged line of work. They all knew who he was, but his only confirmed kills were the ones he'd done in self-defense at his home the day that hit squad broke into his place.

Instead of questioning him, Uraraka took a different line of approach, going for curious. "I didn't take you for the sentimental type." She let her voice go soft, which caught his interest. Most of the time, all he saw of her was the hard agent that followed the rules and sometimes got worked up. She was more than that though. It wouldn't be the first time that she'd been accused of being fragile or gentle. Luckily her boss never saw her that way or she wouldn't even be here.

"We all have things that comfort us, even me," Bakugou pointed out. He dragged his eyes from her feet all the way to her face, not even bothering to hide the brazen desire in his eyes. "I could do that for you."

"No thanks," Uraraka quipped. "I'm not in need of comforting."

Bakugou barked out a laugh. "I could make you squirm and scream then, tie you up a bit if discomfort is more your style."

She flicked her eyes over to glare at him, but he didn't have the decency to look ashamed one bit. He was getting bolder by the day with what he said to her. She doubted he was this way with the others. Agent Iida would've told her at least. However, somehow she knew that he wasn't acting this way just because she was a woman. Maybe it was bold of her to assume that it had to do with her, but she didn't take him for the type to use sexual advances to demean women. He didn't kill them at least unless they tried to kill him first.

That just might happen if he kept this up.

"Ah, this is the place," Bakugou announced as he stopped in front of an assuming shop on the corner. She furrowed her brow. It looked like a cross between a pawn shop and a small neighborhood grocery store. Surely he didn't shop here. She'd been in his house and knew just how expensive his taste ran.

"Seriously?"

"I'll have you know that this fair establishment has been run by the kindest family that I have ever met," Bakugou informed her, sounding deeply offended. "You really should support small businesses."

Now he was being an ass on purpose. Determined to not let him get to her, she followed him inside without further complaint. While he immediately went to the back to greet the owner, she wandered around the store, walking through the aisles and looking at anything that vaguely caught her interest. Mostly she was making sure that there was no one suspicious in the store and they hadn't been followed. Unless the eighty-year-old woman was a murderer in disguise, they were fine.

Satisfied, Uraraka made her way to the back where Bakugou was talking with a red-haired gentleman. He beamed at her from behind the counter and leaned down on it as he asked, "And who is this striking young woman you're here with?"

"This, you shithead," Bakugou stated proudly as he draped an arm over her shoulders, "is my future wife."

Uraraka scoffed, but the redhead only laughed and exclaimed, "I didn't think you were the marrying type!"

Bakugou shrugged and she could feel his weight shift on her shoulders. "What can I say? When you know, you know." He grinned. "In my case, I knew when I saw her kill a man by throwing a knife in his eye." He let out a low whistle and shook his head.

Shocked by his openness, Uraraka whipped her head around and jerked out from his arm. "Bakugou, you can't just talk about things like that!"

"What? It's just shop talk." Bakugou gave her an innocent look that was so tied up with bullshit that she almost saw red. "Besides, you can trust Kirishima. He may smile all the time like a dumbass, but he's one of my closest friends."

Uraraka frowned, glancing from Bakugou to Kirishima, who was indeed still smiling. "He wasn't in your known contacts."

Kirishima looked to Bakugou. "A colleague of yours?"

Bakugou shook his head. "Federal. It's a long story."

Instead of looking bothered that there was a law enforcement agent in his presence, Kirishima only looked mildly surprised and even more intrigued. "You're chock full of those and apparently this one is too." He tilted his head. "A knife in the eye? Really? That's impressive."

"Covered in blood from killing the first two men that attacked her," Bakugou added wistfully. "It really is a shame that she's married to that suit right now."

"Oi." Uraraka poked him in the side, making him jump. It was such an undignified and silly action that an affronted look crossed his face, as if to ask how she dared to do something so dumb. It was nicer than poking him with her gun. "You said you needed something to remind you of home. We don't have much time left."

He wasn't the only one not looking forward to going back to the safehouse. As much added stress that going out in public gave her, a breath of fresh air had been nice and it was interesting to watch Bakugou interact with the world outside of a two bedroom, one bathroom house. He wasn't that much different, but there was something about him that drew the eye. Maybe it was the way she knew he was scoping the area the same as her so that if trouble did happen they would both be ready.

There really was something to be said about a man who had ten different escape scenarios planned in his head depending on what warranted an escape.

"Are you here for business or pleasure?" Kirishima asked.

"Hm, a little bit of both," Bakugou replied thoughtfully.

With that curious q and a over with, Kirishima pressed a button underneath the counter and Uraraka watched in shock as it transformed from a display of what might've been stolen watches to an assortment of weapons that had her raising her eyebrows. She didn't know what to say. Maybe she should've expected something like this since Bakugou had been complaining about not having a cache of weapons to protect himself, but she couldn't have anticipated him being so bold or his arms dealer to show off right in front of her after being told she was a Fed.

"These are all legally owned weapons with the proper documentation," Kirishima told her, probably having noticed the stunned look on her face.

"By who?" Uraraka blurted.

Kirishima turned to Bakugou. "Oh, she's good. I like her. Don't muck it up."

This time, Bakugou was the one to roll his eyes. Despite knowing that she should stop him and definitely knowing that she should report what he was doing, Uraraka sat back and let him pick out the weapon of his choice. Quite frankly, she thought that keeping him without one put them at a disadvantage. If something like what happened at his house were to happen again, the most he'd have to protect himself was a few steak knives. She didn't doubt his skill or ability to fight with those, but in all honesty, he would be able to fight better with a gun.

Some of the other agents might've questioned her, seeing as how letting him have a gun required a certain amount of trust. She had to trust that he wouldn't use it on her. She had to trust that he wouldn't use it on her fellow agents. There were at least a hundred alleged kills under his belt and a few of them had been law enforcement. The idea of putting a gun in his hand was disastrous.

But then he had been ready to kill that assassin in order to save her before she'd done it herself. And besides, if he'd wanted to kill her, he would have already. There had been an ample amount of chances where she'd let her guard down. Bakugou wouldn't hurt her. Annoy her? Most definitely. Kill her? No. He was more apt to defend her than do that, just as she would him, despite the fact that he drove her mad half the time.

Once Bakugou was finished and his purchase was neatly packed and put in a cheap plastic bag, Kirishima bid them goodbye, making sure to tell Bakugou to not be a stranger and bring Uraraka around again. "You should get her something nice next time," he added teasingly. "She deserves it for putting up with you."

Even though she knew that fraternizing with an arms dealer was a very bad idea, Uraraka couldn't help but feel warm towards him and waved back at him before they stepped outside. Bakugou hadn't been lying about this shop being run by some very kind people. It made her wonder how he'd gotten into dealing weapons in the first place. Bakugou had said that it was a small, family business. Such things did tend to run in the family.

Before Uraraka could ask him any questions though, Bakugou grabbed her by the wrist and promptly shoved into against a brick wall in an alley. Uraraka's immediate response was to fight and she moved to attack him, but he had expected as such, grabbing her other wrist and then moving his leg to block hers so that she was completely pinned by him. "I'm not trying to hurt you," he hissed at her, although his gaze was flickering outside of the alley. "I think we're being followed."

"Have we been compromised?" Uraraka asked in a whisper.

"I don't know," Bakugou admitted, his brow furrowed. His face was angled towards her so that anyone looking into the alley would think they were talking...very intimately. The moment she stopped fighting against him, he released her wrists, only to place one of his hands on her hip and the other on the wall by her head. His leg was still in between hers and he was close enough that she could smell him. "I feel like we would've been attacked if they did. Our disguises might've confused them."

Whoever wanted Bakugou dead couldn't afford to make any mistakes, less they wanted to draw more attention to themselves. The first people to send a hit squad after him and failed had learned that lesson the hard way. Those men had been traced back to them and they'd been arrested. Anyone going for a second attempt would need to be more cautious.

"So what do we do?" Uraraka questioned.

Bakugou turned his gaze back to her and time stood still. There was something about his eyes, something that looked strangely like a mixture of regret, that nearly made her stop breathing. His face was so close to hers. She'd known his eyes were a shade of red, but she'd never known how remarkable the color was until now. "When you know, you know," he said in a low voice that had her stomach flipping. "It really is a shame that so many people want to kill me and this is how we met. You're an interesting woman, Agent Uraraka. I would've to see where this went, but the more you're with me, the more likely you'll die."

"If we get out of this alive," Uraraka replied without thinking, "then maybe you can find out."

There was a hard glint in Bakugou's eyes as he grinned. "Don't tease me now."

"What do we do?" Uraraka demanded again.

"Well, there's one thing that might convince them we're not who we are," Bakugou mused.

Uraraka didn't care what it was. As much as she hated that stupid safehouse, she was willing to do whatever it took to get back. Aizawa wouldn't take kindly to either of them getting shot. "What?"

"Don't shoot me," Bakugou said right before he dropped his bag and pressed his lips against hers.

Her first reaction should've been to shove him away. It was not. Her second thought should've been to remind herself that this was so they wouldn't get found out. No assassins trying to figure out who they were would think two people kissing in an alley were a hitman and an FBI agent. It was not. Her third reminder should've been that this was just an act and her responding to his touch meant absolutely nothing.

(It was very much not.)

The second he kissed her, she responded far too quickly and with far too much enthusiasm. These weren't some delicate kisses. No, they were bruising, passionate, and wild. They weren't the kind of kisses that should have been done in public, but Bakugou didn't seem capable of shame and Uraraka was too torn between thinking about their identities being found out and how she couldn't remember ever getting kissed so thoroughly in her life.

It wasn't just his lips demanding more of hers or his tongue curling inside her mouth. He pressed his whole body against hers, his hips grinding against her in an unseemly manner, as he gripped her tightly and pulled her against him. His hand that had been on the wall came to rest on the back of her head before he dug his fingers in her hair and tugged on it tightly. His mouth was hot, wet, wanting more than she could possibly give and her body burned with the eagerness to prove him wrong. When she wrapped her arms around his neck and snapped her hips against his, he let out a growl so low that it reverberated in his chest and had her knees shaking.

When Bakugou finally pulled away, Uraraka had to suck in a gasp of air. Even he was panting at this point. She had a brief moment of clarity to look around, her face hidden in the shadow of his, and found that no one was looking at them. Likely their very public display of affection had been so awkward that everyone had scattered. Bakugou did the same and, judging by his non-reaction, the people that he'd thought were following them were either long gone or no longer considered a threat.

"Coast is clear," Bakugou said, although he made no move of letting her go.

"Good," Uraraka managed, but just barely. Her mind was screaming at her to pull away, but her arms wouldn't move. She was still lined up against him so that she could feel the muscles of his chest against hers, along with something else that had slowly begun to harden up.

Bakugou's eyes moved back to hers. "I ought to pull that line even if no one is around." He smirked. "You were awfully eager there, Agent Uraraka."

"You were awfully needy, _Katsuki_ ," Uraraka shot back.

His gaze darkened as he stared her down and he licked his lips, as if tasting the lip balm that she had left on them. "I'd be careful if I were you. I wouldn't jump into something I can't handle."

"Who says I can't?" Uraraka demanded.

Bakugou let go of her and stepped back, though he continued to consider her as he picked up his bag. He was looking at her as if he could assess her strengths and weaknesses like some sort of robot. Except his eyes dropped back down to her now swollen lips and stayed there. Maybe it wasn't her weaknesses that he was considering but his own. He'd been hounding her for so long for just a taste of this and now that he'd had it he looked conflicted.

Needless to say, this was not going in her report for the day. She would mention the possibility of being followed and escaping capture or being found out, but she wouldn't say how. Aizawa was better off not knowing that tidbit. Uraraka unfortunately knew that she wouldn't forget and Bakugou appeared to have triggered a trip line that he hadn't anticipated.

Great. Now they were both fucked.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes:** I'd like to thank BranRen7 on the Kacchako Discord for giving me the idea for this chapter, which has now spawned ideas for the next two at the least. Is this...a plot? Wow, I didn't know that existed for this fic.

* * *

Thanks to Agents Midoriya and Iida taking the last few shifts, Uraraka had been given a much needed break from Bakugou. It wasn't that she didn't like being around him. No, she'd come to realize that she enjoyed being around him too much. Especially after that last shift when she had accompanied him out of the safehouse. She was fully aware that sometimes there was too much of a good thing, but it was hard to wrap her mind around the fact that her "good thing" was also too much of a bad thing too.

Sheesh, she really needed to get out more, maybe try speed or online dating. Maybe she should just get laid, preferably by someone that was _not_ Katsuki Bakugou.

She'd needed a break. She'd needed to get out of there. After that searing kiss to keep their covers from getting blown, the tension had grown so thick between them that even Midoriya had nearly choked upon walking into the safehouse to trade places with her. She hadn't been about to talk about what had happened and Bakugou would rather swallow his own tongue that admit to anything in front of Midoriya. He'd been a little confused, but he hadn't questioned either of them, not even when she all but bolted out of the place.

It just so happened to coincide with Iida and Midoriya taking over so that she could work on the other part of the protection. They were compiling a list of people that wanted to target Bakugou's life to keep tabs on them. Needless to say, it was a massive list, one that grew with every passing day. Did he have to have a finger in everything? From corrupt government officials around the entire world to the mafia to middle class citizens looking to cash in on life insurance policies, he had ties with all sorts of people that would want him dead before he could talk.

This was definitely a great reminder of why getting involved with him any more than she'd already fallen was not only a terrible idea but a life-threatening one. It was the wake up call that she'd needed. When she went back to the safe house tomorrow to take over Iida's shift, she'd be refreshed and ready to begin her job anew. His suggestive quips, heated gaze, and inability to remember her personal space would no longer affect her.

Rubbing her eyes, Uraraka leaned back in her wobbly chair and dropped what felt like the fiftieth file onto the steadily growing pile on her desk. She glanced at the clock and groaned when she spotted that she'd been at this for almost six hours and was still nowhere near done. There were files to comb through, plus his own statements, along with computer data. It was a mess, one that they'd spent days slogging through and compiling. It was nearing on midnight and she'd forgotten to eat dinner yet again.

A knock on her door and someone immediately following with, "Hey, Uraraka-" nearly made her fall out of her chair. "Oh, my bad!"

Uraraka snagged the edge of her desk to keep herself from tipping over. "My god, Shindo, can you warn a girl first before you barge into her office?"

Agent Shindo grinned from the threshold of her door. "I did knock." That he had, but that didn't make her feel any less embarrassed at having been caught off guard. Her cheeks were pink as she safely tipped her chair forward. "How are you doing so far?"

"How do you think?" Uraraka waved a hand at the pile on her desk and then slumped forward, leaning her arms on the stack and burying her face in them. "I'm swamped."

"Why don't you call it quits for the night?" Shindo asked. "You're the only one still on the clock in the office."

Uraraka pulled her head out of her arms. "Am I?" She peered out of the glass wall and noticed that everything else was dark except for a few lights. Even Aizawa's office was closed up for the night. Of course she was the only one still working. It was bloody midnight. "What are you still doing here then?"

Shindo held up his own files. "I've been cross-referencing the identities of the men that attacked you a while back to see who hired them." He shook his head. "I think Bakugou may have had a hand in the last election for Belgium's Prime Minister. It's absurd."

"I don't think he's too attached to politics," Uraraka mused.

"Oh?"

"He doesn't talk about them at all," Uraraka pointed out. "If anything about politics comes on the news or radio, he changes the channel."

Eyeing her curiously, Shindo said, "You seem to know him quite well."

Uraraka cleared her throat. "It's important to constantly update your profile. It can help in the most surprising of ways." She rolled her eyes. "Besides, I'm stuck with him often. He talks a lot about things he likes. Consider yourself lucky."

"Oh, I do." Shindo wasn't a part of the team watching over Bakugou. He was relegated to the field office where he was stuck doing a lot of the grunt work and research. In fact, he didn't even know where the safe house was located. They'd kept that in a tight knight circle and only on a need-to-know basis. There had been plenty of times when their positions had been and he had been the one protecting the asset, so he didn't complain. He looked around her office. "You forgot to eat dinner again, didn't you?"

"How can you tell?" Uraraka asked as she stood up and stretched her back.

"The lack of takeout boxes that usually permeate your office," Shindo pointed out.

Uraraka laughed. "Okay, you've got me there." She loved takeout, but hadn't had it in a while. It wasn't like she could order it while at the safehouse. No, she'd survived on either bringing food or, surprisingly, Bakugou's cooking. He was an excellent cook - said it made him good lover material since the best way to a person's heart was through their stomach. She wasn't sure if he was thinking about gutting a person or wooing them into bed. "I just got so wrapped up in the work and then I saw the clock…"

"There's always that twenty-four hour diner around the corner," Shindo offered.

"You don't have to accompany me out of pity," Uraraka told him as she grabbed her jacket and slipped into it. "I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself."

"I'm not questioning that," Shindo told her, his tone light and amused. "Can't I just want to enjoy your company?"

"You've got poor taste then," Uraraka said as she stored the files in a cabinet and locked them up. She should've organized them better instead of essentially dumping in the drawer, but she'd gone through them already and put them in the computer. "I'm terrible company."

Shindo smirked. "Bakugou finds you charming enough."

Her heart skipped a beat and her eyes narrowed as she crossed the room to the door. With one hand, she turned off the light of her office and, with the other, she poked him in the side, which made him jerk away and laugh. "That's not funny."

"Midoriya mentioned how enamored he seems to be with you," Shindo teased. She was going to have to wallop Midoriya upside the head the next time she saw him. He didn't mean any harm by it, but spreading talk like that about the office was going to make the guys think that she could be of use in other ways during operations. She was not the femme fatale kind, no matter what Bakugou thought of her. "It's apparently made him much more cooperative."

"Ha ha," Uraraka deadpanned as they walked down the darkened hallway for the door. "Just for that comment, you have to buy my food."

Shindo winked. "I was planning on it."

He was lucky that she liked working with him. He was friendly and good-natured, but he was a good agent too. Sometimes he came off as too light and goofy, but underneath that smile was a sharpshooter and an intensity that came with the job. He'd been a Marshal before joining the FBI, which was part of why he was so good at this job now. They'd been butting heads with the Marshals since Bakugou had basically turned himself into them. Normally they would handle a case like this, but he'd refused to work with anyone but the FBI. He didn't like Marshals.

Correction: he wasn't fond of law enforcement period, but he'd been adamantly against them. He thought witsec was a joke. Of course he should know that since he allegedly had a few witsec hits under his belt. Again, see, a great reason why he was bad news and she shouldn't be attracted to him. Incredible kiss, intelligence, and undeniable power aside, he had killed a lot of people. Sleeping with a killer was never a good idea.

"You're putting yourself on the line for this case, aren't you?" Shindo said as they stepped out of the building. There was a chill in the air that made her pull on her jacket tighter.

"Aren't we all?" Uraraka asked. "This is a massive case. It spans the globe."

"Of course, this has the chance of toppling governments," Shindo agreed passively. He cast her a sideways look, the glow of the streetlamps ahead of them casting a strange shadow on his face. "But I mean… You were there when that first attack happened. You've gotten involved in this much more than anyone else. Not to mention the level of trust Bakugou has in you…"

Uraraka scoffed and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "He doesn't trust me."

 _He just wants to sleep with me,_ she thought. _You don't have to trust someone to want that._

"You've made much more headway with him than Midoriya or Iida," Shindo told her without any judgement in his voice. She glanced at him. He didn't look like he was mocking her for doing so simply because she was a woman. No, he knew that she was damn good at her job. This was just a special case. "Shinsou and I are on the outside, but even we know that if we had to trust one person with Bakugou, it would be you. He'll listen to you."

"He doesn't listen to _anyone_ ," Uraraka laughed.

"Are you forgetting that the safehouse is bugged?" Shindo asked with a slightly teasing smile. No she had not. It humiliated her on a constant basis, seeing as how Bakugou was absolutely shameless about what he said to her and liked to provoke her into saying things that made her blush later. Shinsou listened to those recordings. Thank everything he'd never said anything to her about what Bakugou said to her, but she'd caught him raising his eyebrows and shaking his head a few times.

The idea that Shindo knew as well…

Uraraka groaned. "How much have you heard?"

"Enough to know that you're one step away from living a steamy romance novel," Shindo joked.

That just made her hide her face in her hands and groan all over again as he laughed. Honestly, she could've punched him in this moment if it wasn't for the fact that she was really hungry and wanted him to buy her food. Damn her stomach for always taking precedence to her pride. It was how she'd survived off shitty takeout for years despite any of her stakeout partners gawking at her as if they'd never seen a woman consume so much lo mein in their lives.

"Can we burn those tapes?" Uraraka asked, her voice muffled in her hands.

"I'm afraid they're evidence now," Shindo answered.

Evidence of her humiliation. She had known that before asking the question - and she was very adamantly against destroying evidence - but it had to be said. Nothing of what they'd talked about would be interest to the court, but it gave insight to Bakugou's profile. Was he not taking this as seriously as he should? Was he truly this flippant? She didn't think so. With all the kill notches on his bedpost, Bakugou was not a careless person. He was much smarter than he looked and used that to his advantage. He was the type of person that went all in the moment that he'd been dealt a good hand.

Despite his better judgement, his interest in her seemed genuine and not a distraction at all.

She didn't like it. She didn't want it.

"He likes you," Shindo said, sounding oddly distant.

Uraraka blushed. "You make it sound like a middle school crush."

A grin stretched across his face. "I can be lewder, if you like."

"Ugh, no, I'm good." Uraraka huddled in on herself. The wind was just strong enough to be annoying, but they'd be at the diner soon. "You can always take my place, if you want."

"Hm, no thanks, I'd prefer to stay behind the scenes for this," Shindo replied.

"Oh, pish posh, you love the spotlight," Uraraka countered. She glanced at him and tilted her head. "You requested your position, didn't you? This is a high profile case. I would've expected you to want to be front and center. Iida's mentioned that this is the kind of case that could propel are careers."

Shindo gave her a smile. "I read Bakugou's profile. We'd be more toxic than him and Midoriya. You are by far the most compatible with him."

"Compatible," Uraraka replied dryly, "is fancy talk for saying that I have the right equipment."

Instead of knowing when to shut up, Shindo bumped into her with his hip. "You certainly do."

"Listen here, buddy," Uraraka replied in a threatening tone. "I've basically been shacking up with who could possibly be considered the world's greatest hitman since the Ice Man. It wouldn't be that difficult for me to find out the best way to get rid of a body."

"You know it's that kind of talk that gets under a man's skin, right?"

Uraraka huffed and stormed ahead of him. "I really will kill the lot of you! Especially Midoriya for opening his big mouth and Shinsou for letting you hear those tapes."

It was embarrassing enough knowing that the others knew the way Bakugou spoke to her, but she did not like the idea that they knew how much he affected her as well. Shindo was getting under her skin at this point. She wasn't necessarily upset about it. The thing was, well, none of them had ever really seen her as a woman before. She'd been an agent and she'd liked it that way. It meant that they didn't question her nearly as much as she'd seen other female agents get grilled across the board.

"I understand what Bakugou sees in you though," Shindo said a few steps behind her. "You've always been special, Uraraka, always had a way with assets. It's an incredible skill."

"It's just a part of the job," Uraraka insisted, eyes locked on the glowing diner ahead of them. She could smell the cheap coffee already that would keep her awake long enough to eat and then get home. It was better than the stuff that they had at the office, which was a crime, truly, when Aizawa ran off of the stuff.

"No, it isn't." Shindo sighed. "Gods, I really wish it hadn't been you."

Uraraka halted and furrowed her brow. Yeah, she was exhausted and starving and her mind felt a little scrambled, but that comment didn't make any sense. Maybe she'd heard him wrong. It was late, after all. Hadn't been her what? Had he actually wanted to be on the protective detail?

Turning around to face him, Uraraka started to ask, "What are-?" but was cut off when she felt a needle pierce her neck. She gasped as something cold flooded her veins and then felt a hand on the back of her neck. Instinctively, she went to pull the needle out, but then her wrist was grabbed and twisted behind her back. She tried to fight back, but found it difficult as whatever she'd been injected with began to take over her body. Panic began to swarm her mind, but there was little she could do.

"This wouldn't have been nearly as bad if it had been Midoriya or Iida," Shindo continued as she all but fell into his arms. His body was warm and solid, but she didn't feel comforted in the slightest. When she grit her teeth and tried to pull away from him, the grip on her neck tightened and he slipped an arm around her. "But you really did a number on Bakugou. I can't say that I'm surprised that you caught his interest, but not even I anticipated the extent."

Swallowing and trying to steady her breathing, Uraraka managed to say, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, Uraraka, I haven't even seen you two interact and I heard the effect you have on him," Shindo told her, his voice low as he spoke into her ear. He held her against like as if in a lover's embrace, which her mind violently revolted against, and dragged her back into an alley. No, no, this wasn't happening. The last time someone had been this close to her it had been Bakugou in that other alley. She'd felt so alive despite the fear and tension then. She'd felt elated. Not like this, not scared and angry and desperate to move. "I know what you're thinking: you're just a conquest; you're something for him to _win_. Well, you're wrong. You're more than that. You always have been. It just took a hit man to see that in you for others to notice."

Uraraka dug her nails into his arm weakly. "Is this...how you ask...a girl out?"

"I thought about doing that, you know," Shindo said, "before this case."

"Might be...too late for that," Uraraka said through gritted teeth.

"Ambushing and drugging a girl tends to do that," Shindo replied with a quiet, mirthless laugh. "If it's any consolation, I tried to find another way, but the location of that safehouse is kept tightly under wraps. I knew no one would give it up. So if I can't get to him…"

"It won't work," Uraraka swore. "He won't… He won't leave."

Shindo leaned his head against hers. She could feel his smile against her hair even as darkness swirled in her vision. "You see, that's where you're wrong. I saw the pictures of you two on your little outing before you gave your tail the slip." So they had been followed. She couldn't feel any sort of triumph or guilt over that when she was barely holding onto consciousness. The only reason she was still on her feet was because he was holding her up. He propped her against the cold brick of a building, but her legs felt like jello and she crumpled, dropping into his arms again. "He stayed because it suited him, but he'll leave for you."

Uraraka shook her head. "I'm just a Suit. He doesn't give a shit."

"Oh, Ochako," Shindo sighed. "Is that what you really think about yourself?"

It didn't matter what she thought. Nothing mattered. She knew that she was going to pass out and be at Shindo's mercy. Whatever his plan for her was, she knew that it wasn't good. If he was working for the other side, her only option was to find out which side that was. Seeing as how she'd just been sifting through all the people that might find a weak link in the FBI to get a hold of him, it was a fucking lot.

"Why?" Uraraka demanded as she clung to him.

Shindo picked her back up, almost carrying her entirely now. "It's not that difficult to figure out. Money talks and we get paid shit to deal with a lot of shit. That's it. Surely you can understand that with the way you grew up."

"I wouldn't sell out my friends for money," Uraraka snarled as her vision blurred and Shindo's face grew increasingly foggy.

"Yeah, but you'd sleep with a man who has at least a hundred kills under his belt," Shindo replied, his voice colder than she expected. He was angry. "So really who has the shit morals between us?"

Uraraka didn't have the chance to answer him as the drug claimed her and she fell unconscious, her last thought on Bakugou, who she screamed to not follow her Shindo could've dropped her on the ground and she wouldn't have known until she woke up in pain, but he didn't. Instead, despite her being dead weight, he easily lifted her into his arms like she weighed nothing. She could be so imposing sometimes that it was a little surprising to see just how small she was when her eyes were closed and she was limp in his grip. She was as light as his burdens.

Still, he really did wish it had been anyone but her. If only she hadn't done more that catch Bakugou's attention in a way that no one could miss.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes:** This chapter was heavily inspired by one of my favorite shows, Burn Notice. If you haven't watched it, I highly suggest checking it out. It's action-packed, funny, intense, and incredibly clever. I may have watched it twice. It's also the only show that I own every season on DVD. One of the episodes inspired one of my favorite fanfics that I've written, a Rogue One fic called "a place for getting lost (and for getting found)", along a few others. Um, this chapter got much longer than I anticipated and it didn't even hit two scenes that I'd planned. Deku thinks so much. His brain needs to chill. I originally planned on this being from Bakugou's POV, but I decided that there were certain thoughts and emotions that I wanted to keep hidden. And the idea of seeing Bakugou and this weird situation from someone else's POV was too hard to resist.

* * *

Midoriya had done guard duty for a lot of shady people thanks to his job. It was unfortunate, but came with being in law enforcement. Sometimes they needed information from bad people in order to put away even worse people. He didn't like it, but that was how it worked around here. The lesser of two evils had to be chosen. He would've liked to put all the bad guys away, but if there was one thing that he had learned in his time in the FBI, it was that justice was not always served. Almost anyone could be bought, even the government, if a person knew how to work the system.

Katsuki Bakugou didn't just know how to work the system; he made it his.

Watching over Bakugou was not the most fun job he'd had. Luckily, he was able to split his time with Agents Uraraka and Iida. It was a good thing too seeing as how Bakugou seemed to take particular offense to Midoriya. He didn't take it personally himself. A lot of criminals hadn't liked him. Again, it came with being in law enforcement. As well-liked as he was in most of his life, he was okay with criminals hating him.

Seriously though, Bakugou hated him. Midoriya wasn't exactly sure what he did to earn the hitman's wrath, besides being a fed. It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't have to spend hours on end with him. Most of the time, they kept their distance from each other. Bakugou would lock himself in the sparse bedroom while Midoriya stayed in the even sparser living room. He'd pass by to make sure that he was still in here, but usually left him to his own devices. As long as he wasn't doing anything illegal, he didn't care what Bakugou did in there.

Sometimes though they couldn't avoid each other and that put them in some awkward and tense positions. Like when both of them wanted something to eat or drink at the same time or when they'd argue over what to watch on the television. It was their only form of entertainment besides the books that Iida had brought in. (It was surprising that Bakugou was such a bookworm, but the multiple bookcases at his house had been a dead giveaway even if he didn't want to admit it.) Midoriya didn't like remembering the time he was trying to use the restroom and Bakugou had banged on the door so hard that he'd knocked it off its hinges.

Honestly, Midoriya didn't know why he had to be so difficult with him when he knew that he wasn't anywhere near as aggressive with Uraraka. Then again, Bakugou didn't seem to like anyone but her. Maybe the simple fact that neither he nor Iida was her was enough to make him dislike them.

Luckily, his shift was almost over and Uraraka could replace him. That always put Bakugou in a better mood, making their last hour together mostly painless. He spent that time in the kitchen, cooking dinner, which was what he always did when Uraraka had the night shift. From the food he'd tasted, Bakugou was an incredible cook, but he'd be damned if he did it for anyone but her. Not that he said it was for her, but Midoriya knew better.

Who said a hitman couldn't be a romantic?

Midoriya also knew that food was easily one of Uraraka's favorite things, although he had held out on telling Bakugou what her favorite food was no matter how much he threatened and demanded. He might not have Agent Shindo's natural charm or Agent Shinsou's counterintelligence training, but there was something about Bakugou that brought out the seriously stubborn side of him. It was no wonder the two of them constantly butted heads.

From his spot on the couch where he was reading a book about a superhero (which Bakugou had said was "fucking nerdy as hell", but he'd caught him reading it too), Midoriya had a good vantage point of three of the rooms. He could see the living room, into the kitchen, and down the hallway in the bedroom. Delicious smells from the whatever Bakugou was cooking wafted over to him, almost making him salivate. No way Bakugou was going to let him have some before he left, which meant he'd either have to stop somewhere or cook something at home. A radio played loud, crashing music in the background.

Today hadn't been a bad day. Sure, the two of them had argued as usual, but Bakugou had only threatened to kill him twice compared to his usual four or five. It was a marked improvement. Maybe they were getting along better. Not that it mattered if a criminal liked him or not, but it would certainly make his job easier. Wrangling Bakugou into some manageable form was half the battle.

"You almost outta here?" Bakugou questioned as he swaggered out of kitchen, throwing a towel over his shoulder. It was so domestic that Midoriya barely refrained from snorting. "I'm tired of that stupid smile on your face."

Just to piss him off, Midoriya lifted his gaze from the book and – let it be known that he was capable of giving as good as he got – smiled at him. "Should be any minute now."

As if on cue, his phone buzzed in his pocket. Setting the book aside, he fished it out of his pocket and flipped it over to look at the screen. Midoriya furrowed his brow. A text from Uraraka? Maybe she was letting him know that she was running late. She had mentioned staying up too late going through all the files on the people he would be testifying against. Still, it wasn't like her when they were on a case, especially one as important as this. Even if she was, she always called to explain herself.

However, when he unlocked his phone and opened the message, Midoriya almost dropped his phone. "Shit!"

It wasn't normal for him to catch Bakugou's interest, but him swearing when he never did around him was enough to make him look back at him. Midoriya must have been wearing the horror he felt on his face because Bakugou was on him in a flash and snatched the phone out of his hand. A dark expression fell over his face as he stared down at the picture on the screen. He'd worn furious and derisive expressions before, but now he looked ready to explode. It was a cold and calculated explosion that spoke volumes of danger.

That was the face of the killer that they'd been warned about.

Bakugou tossed the phone on the couch in disgust. Though he didn't want to look at it again, Midoriya knew that he had to analyze it as quickly as possible to determine the severity of the situation. He picked the phone up and held it in a surprisingly steady hand, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before turning his focus on the picture.

Uraraka was strapped in a chair, her wrists tied on the armrests and her ankles on the legs. It looked like it had been screwed into the ground. There were red burn marks around her wrists where she'd been pulling on her restraints. Her hair was hanging in her face, which was red and sweaty from the strain of fighting, and black duct tape over her mouth. Her eyes were glaring directly at the camera as if challenging whoever had taken the picture, but also served as a warning to whoever saw it.

She was furious, not afraid. At least she wasn't displaying any obvious signs of fear. She probably didn't want to give her captor the satisfaction. It would be impossible not to feel afraid at all. He had been in some seriously sticky situations before. Even he had tasted fear. Looking at this picture of her now brought up the feelings he'd had when he had been shot and came very close to dying.

He didn't want her to know the taste of death.

Bakugou ran a hand through his messy blonde hair. "Who in the hell would…?" He pulled his hand out of his hair and slammed it flat against the wall. "Fuck!"

A text popped up underneath the picture: _You know the drill._

Midoriya's mouth went dry. Her captor didn't have to say anything outright for them to know what they wanted them to do – or rather what they _didn't_ want them to do. Alert the authorities and she was dead. It didn't really matter if they were using her as leverage against the FBI. They could always get a hold of another agent. Midoriya itched to text Shinsou, who knew people better at tech than anyone on their team, but he stayed his fingers and waited for more information.

Another text: _You know what I want._

He didn't look away, no matter how much he wanted to look up at Bakugou. Of course he knew what they wanted. The FBI didn't have the money for a ransom that would pay half much as Katsuki Bakugou's life would. Getting their hands on him would give them access to a fortune. There were potentially people willing to shell out enough money for a small island. He'd had his fingers in a lot of pies around the world.

 _The question is: what do you want? Agent Uraraka back whole or in pieces?_

Midoriya grit his teeth and tried not to hiss through them. He'd been threatened more times than he could count, half of it now by Bakugou in a matter of a few weeks, and he had seen his colleague's lives threatened as well. While he wasn't tall by any means, Uraraka was the shortest one by far. He had seen plenty of men sneer and threaten her and he'd seen her take them all down as well. How had someone managed to get the drop on her like this? They must have come out of nowhere – attacked her from behind – somehow caught her off guard.

 _I know what you want, Agent Midoriya._ No shit. It was pretty simple to guess. _But what does Bakugou want?_

Someone must have been following Bakugou and Uraraka the other day when they'd gone out of the safehouse, just as she had worried about in her report. That would account for why they had the idea that she meant something to him. She had been against it, but Midoriya had known that something was going to blow up if Bakugou didn't get some fresh air. You didn't keep a lion in a cage. It wasn't natural and it made them dangerous. Judging from the fire burning in his red eyes, he was approaching lethal levels of danger and ready to bite back.

Despite himself, Midoriya's eyes flickered to the other man pacing in front of him. What _did_ Bakugou want? They all knew that he greatly preferred Uraraka's company to the point where he flirted obnoxiously and cooked for her. He was downright cooperative when she was around, like she had him subconsciously trained. They bickered just as much as he and Midoriya did, but it was more playful with her. He _liked_ her smile.

That didn't mean he actually _liked_ her though. He could just prefer a softer, more attractive view. Even if he did like her, there was liking someone and then there was sacrificing yourself for someone, which this most definitely would be if he gave into their demands. Midoriya wanted to do everything he could to save her – but that threatening look in her eyes warned that if he so much as considered giving up Bakugou, she would hunt him down and make him suffer the consequences.

Bakugou finally noticed Midoriya watching him and froze, turning his glare on him. "What the fuck are you looking at?"

"The ransom apparently," Midoriya answered honestly.

He had probably expected as much, but Bakugou still snarled and scowled viciously. No one liked it when the tables were turned on them, least of all him. He knew that people were willing to go to great lengths to get to him, but kidnapping a member of the federal law enforcement to get there was a big one.

"So what are we going to do?" Bakugou asked, his glare attempting to burn holes through him on the couch.

" _You_ aren't going to do anything," Midoriya replied. "I need to…"

Decide if he was going to alert the team or not. How could they find out? Midoriya paused for a moment before ripping the back of his phone off and peeling out the battery. No bug in his phone. There was one relief. He put it back together and turned in on. Maybe if he just contacted Iida, who would find out anyways since he was supposed to replace Uraraka after her shift here was done. He could try to pass that off since that would tip off the authorities, but then again, Iida would immediately go to their boss. He trusted Aizawa, but one wrong move could be costly.

Maybe if he went back to the office and try to track Uraraka's phone… He couldn't leave Bakugou here alone. There was no doubt in Midoriya's mind that he would do something extraordinarily stupid. He wasn't sure what, seeing as how Bakugou didn't seem to be the rescuing type, but he could be wrong.

"Like fucking hell I'm not doing anything," Bakugou shot back. "I'm not just gonna sit on my ass while someone tries to threaten me."

"And you're not gonna go guns ablazing when we don't even know where she is!" Midoriya countered, jumping to his feet. He knew that Bakugou thought that he was weak, a pushover, a goodie-two-shoe – and maybe at one point he had been those things – but he wasn't about to let something happen to her without a fight. It was thanks to her quick thinking after he'd been shot that he was still alive. He owed her this. "We need to think this through!"

His phone pinged and Midoriya's grip on it tightened when he looked at the message. _I'll give him some time to think it over, but I wouldn't keep her waiting too long. We'll be waiting in Frankfort when he's ready._

"Oh, how benevolent," Midoriya grumbled under his breath. Some time to think. He had just said that. Were there any bugs in the house beside their own? No, they checked for that regularly. Besides, if someone could come in here to plant bugs, they could've just killed Bakugou then instead of kidnapping her. And what did Frankfort mean? He wasn't even sure there was a Frankfort in this state. Was it a code? An inside joke? This person was playing a game.

Or they knew how this worked.

Midoriya liked neither option.

Another picture popped up, this one a close-up of Uraraka's face. She seemed to be uninjured despite being tied up, but that didn't mean she hadn't been tortured or pressed for information. Whoever had taken her wanted Bakugou and she knew where he was. The quickest solution would be to go through her. She was tough and could sure as hell take a beating, but she didn't have the training meant to teach them to withstand questioning under torture. The answers were usually unreliable, but that didn't stop people from trying.

What stood out in the picture was the black gloved hand, the fingers gripping her chin tightly to force her to look face first in the camera. This time, she wasn't looking at the camera, but whoever was holding onto her. The hand was large enough for him to know that it belonged to a man. He zoomed in as much as he could on her eyes, hoping to maybe see a reflection, but there was little to nothing to go on. This wasn't the movies. He couldn't magically create the image of her captor in her eyes.

Uraraka still didn't look afraid so much as angry. Maybe even disgusted. Midoriya wasn't sure, but he got the feeling that she recognized her captor. It was hard to tell with just two photos to go on, but they'd worked closely together for years. He liked to think that he recognized her moods and could read her facial expressions and body language.

 _She would fetch a pretty price, but I wonder how much she's worth to him,_ the last text said. _If she makes it out of this, I hope the government can afford getting her another phone._

It was to be expected. Her phone was too easy to track. They'd likely destroyed it the second after sending that last text. It was what he would've done. If he had been at the field office, he could've tracked it right then, but they must have known that it was his turn to watch over Bakugou. How long had they been watching them? Searching the city? When Bakugou and Uraraka had left the safehouse, they had gone somewhere not around here.

"What's the bastard saying?" Bakugou demanded.

"Probably best you don't know," Midoriya said warily, taking a step back.

Bakugou held out his hand. "Give me the damn phone, Deku."

Midoriya tightened his grip on the device. "I told you: it's Agent Midoriya or just my name."

"I'll call you whatever the hell I want, shitty suit," Bakugou snarled, stepping forward and holding his hand out more insistently. "Now give me the fucking phone. This is my life we're bargaining here. I wanna know what that fuckstick who took Uraraka is saying."

While it was true that his suit was not as nice as Iida's or Shinsou's and he was known for wearing tennis shoes with them when his loafers were destroyed, his suit wasn't that bad. He needed to work on doing his tie better. Uraraka usually re-did it for him half the time. He glanced down at it now, noticing how short it was. If something were to happen to her, she wouldn't be there to help him anymore. It was a strange thought, probably inappropriate since it wasn't important, but it struck him hard enough to unsettle him.

"And I'm telling you that you're not in charge here, _Kacchan_ ," Midoriya retorted. His tone must have been harder than anticipated because Bakugou reared back and an ugly look crossed his face. He wasn't used to being talked to like that – someone with his skillset usually wasn't – especially with that nickname tacked on.

Bakugou balled his hand into a fist and then pulled his hand back to his side. A strained look settled on his face, brows furrowed, eyes glowering, and lips pressed into a thin line. It was like he was struggling. Maybe he just didn't like getting toyed with, which this person was certainly doing. They were definitely working against his ego right now. Even if he didn't truly give a shit about Uraraka, he would not take someone taunting him lying down.

Dropping the tension from his shoulders, Midoriya sighed, "We can't go flying off the handle like some half-cocked–"

He never got to finish that sentence before Bakugou launched himself at him. Somehow, in the one second before the inevitable collision, Midoriya got the sense that his intentions were not fatal. Not that it mattered when he hit him hard enough to send them both flying into the couch and knocking it backward. If Bakugou thought he had the upper hand with surprise or that Midoriya wasn't used to fighting, he was sorely mistaken. Midoriya used their momentum against him, rolling as the back of the couch hit the floor, shoving on Bakugou's chest at the right moment and kicking him so that he was thrown into the wall.

As Midoriya rolled off his back and pulled his feet underneath him so that he was in a crouching position, Bakugou snarled from his spot against the wall. However, when they connected eyes, he smirked and Midoriya looked down at his very empty hands. Bakugou had used the tackle as a distraction to take the phone from him. He pushed himself up as well and held the phone in front of him, swiping the password on the screen. Midoriya's face burned a little. He changed that password constantly to avoid him doing that.

With the damage done, Midoriya watched as Bakugou read the messages. The smirked faded quickly and was replaced with an expression that grew steadily darker and more infuriated with each passing second. By the time he reached the last message, he was shocked that his phone hadn't melted from the intensity of his glare.

If looks could kill, this whole block would've been obliterated.

"Bakugou, we can't do anything rash," Midoriya warned.

"Are you suggesting that we sit on our asses and do nothing?" Bakugou questioned, his voice devoid of anything emotion despite the rage-filled expression on his face. It was unnatural. Everything showed that he put all of himself in everything he did. Impassive and unemotional was not his style.

"Of course not," Midoriya said, trying to force calmness in his voice that he didn't feel in the slightest. He stood up and straightened his button-up shirt. Think, think. He had to figure out what to do. Call Iida? Aizawa? Shinsou? Did he tell any of them? How would the kidnappers know if he did? His phone wasn't bugged, but he couldn't be certain that the others' weren't. Whoever they were at least knew their schedule. The message had not been meant for him but for Bakugou. If he hadn't been here, Bakugou wouldn't know about this.

Midoriya's heart plummeted into his stomach. How could he be sure the kidnapper wasn't someone on their team?

They were a tight-knit group and most of them had worked on multiple cases together. Midoriya had been involved in stings, tense operations, and shootouts with some of these people. He'd gone to barbeques, birthday parties, and weddings. He had known some of them for years. As small as the team was, four or five people alone couldn't work this case. Only a handful were aware of the location of the current safehouse, but other information was shared. The idea that it could be someone that he knew – or thought he knew – wasn't a pleasant one.

"You're thinking it too, aren't you," Bakugou said, his voice still flat. Midoriya flicked his gaze back to him. He had stood up, holding onto the phone almost tight enough to crack the screen. "You might have a mole issue."

Midoriya rubbed the bottom of his face. "I don't know. We looked into it after the attack on your house, but we didn't find any evidence."

Bakugou raised an eyebrow, almost looking impressed. "You looked at your own people?"

"I vetted Shinsou and then he combed through everyone else's files, phone records, recent debit transactions, and whatever else he thought was necessary," Midoriya replied, not feeling a hint guilty. When he had explained his actions to Iida, Shindo, and Aizawa, none of them had faulted him for it. Iida was an incredibly thorough person; his boss had a background in that kind of stuff; and Shindo was an open person anyway.

"I don't care," Bakugou decided forcefully, each word like a punch. "I'm not just going to sit here and do shit."

"I can't just let you walk out of here," Midoriya told him. "It's our job to protect you, even if it meant losing something in the process. Uraraka knows that. At the end of the day, your testimony is more important than our lives."

Bakugou stared at him. "So what? You're just going to let her fucking die for a job?"

"I'm not going to just give up on her," Midoriya insisted.

"It sure as hell sounds like it! You don't even know if you should call for backup!" Bakugou held up the phone, the last picture of her on the screen. If it looked like she knew the person… "The bastards are going to kill her if we don't do something. It'd probably be a mercy considering their other options. Trust me; I know plenty of disgusting bastards that would pay good money for a chance at a Suit like her."

Growling under his breath, Midoriya ran his fingers through his hair and turned on his heels. "I know! Damnit, I know that! Just… Let me think!"

"There isn't time!" Bakugou shouted, throwing the phone at him. He barely caught it. The last thing they needed was for their only mode of communication to be broken. "We've got one option and that's tear these motherfucker's a new one. We show them I'm not to be fucked with and we get her back. That's it! That's our only choice. We do this shit my way."

"You know what you're saying, don't you?" Midoriya asked him. There was a moment where Bakugou's lips twitched, his rage faltering, and then he turned his back to him.

The file on Bakugou said that he didn't have many personal attachments. His parents, a very normal couple with a nice house and beautiful garden in the backyard and a cute dog, lived on the other side of the country and hadn't heard from him in years. They hadn't even known if he was still alive. He'd cut off contact with them when he was twenty. He had associates, contacts, people he did business with. It was like he didn't understand the concept of friendship. He didn't go to barbeques or weddings or parties. He created more funerals than he would ever attend.

This reaction though was very personal. Midoriya couldn't deny that and neither could Bakugou.

"They want you for her. And we can go in there – guns blazing, bombs at the ready, whatever awful and violent thing you're thinking – but at the end of the day, you'd be risking your life for a fed, potentially sacrificing it." Midoriya knew that he was coming off as a bit cruel, maybe even cold. He wanted more than anything to save Uraraka, but he also knew that she wanted him to cut her off. Could she do the same for him? He didn't think so. Hypocrite. "Is saving your ego or pride worth that much?"

"She's worth that much, you idiot!" Bakugou snapped, rearing on him and looking ready to strike. However, Midoriya stayed rooted to the spot. His eyebrows did raise as a jolt of shock rocked him. Bakugou immediately knew that he'd made a mistake in opening his mouth and stomped to the other side of the room. The place wasn't decorated enough for him to destroy anything. "I fucked up, okay? I know that. I fucked up and I kept fucking up and I don't… I hate making mistakes. I'm supposed to be the best at what I do. And that means no fuck-ups, no wrong moves, nothing that I don't plan for. But I messed up big time and shit just… It spiraled. I kept doing it and now here we are."

Midoriya furrowed his brow. "Having personal attachments and emotions isn't a bad thing."

"In my profession it is!" Bakugou rubbed the bottom of his face in irritation. He'd shaved this morning. He always did before Uraraka's shift. Not that she talked about it or even dated much, but she did prefer clean-shaven guys. "I'm not an idiot."

"I never said you were," Midoriya said point blank. In truth, he knew that Bakugou was incredibly intelligent. He had to be in order to have not been caught yet. All the books in his home had pointed at it. To be frank, he could've been anything he'd wanted. He didn't have to be, well, a hired killer.

"I know…" Bakugou huffed, clearly not enjoying airing out any of his dirty laundry. "Look, I've got a code, okay? It's not much, but it's mine. I don't kill kids. Women get the same treatment as men. I don't torture. I don't do assault. I don't do kidnappings and ransoms. I prefer my marks to have shady pasts or behavior."

"So what? You kill bad guys and that makes it okay?"

Bakugou grit his teeth. "No, it doesn't. I know what I am – and I know what I'm not. I know that I'm not good enough for her, okay? I know that I would only ruin her life. Fuck, I have! She wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for me. I got careless. I got stupid. I don't do that. I don't air my shit for a reason. But she just–"

It was a bit like watching a train wreck as Bakugou was forced to face all of his emotions at once. He was used to smothering them, like they were unnecessary, but under the stress of the situation, he couldn't keep them down any longer and they were all rising to the surface. It wasn't just rage boiling underneath his skin, but anxiety, regret, and a very real fear that he'd never felt before. It was concern, something much more than fondness, and he didn't know what to do with all of it.

"I thought it was a trick at first," Bakugou admitted, actually sounding ashamed. "Send in the pretty agent, get me to be more cooperative. She wasn't flirtatious, but she was nice. I fucking hate nice from law enforcement – it's so fake – but I played along with it. Figured I'd make a game out of teasing and annoying her and ruin the ruse." He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. "Then the attack happened and I realized I was wrong. Of course I didn't believe it right away. The playful banter, the seemingly genuine compassion, the sharp retorts, the clever insight. She could just be playing a long con. If you weren't aware already, I'm not a trusting person."

"I was going to say borderline paranoid, but highly suspicious at best," Midoriya offered.

Bakugou laughed mirthlessly. It was a cold sound. "I was a fucking idiot. Before I knew it, I wasn't playing a game at anything. It was real. I conned myself. How stupid is that?"

Midoriya shrugged his shoulders. "That's the real world, Bakugou. You weren't living in it."

"It doesn't matter," Bakugou said hollowly, opening his eyes. "I knew it was a mistake to get attached and I did it anyways. I didn't think it would put her in actual danger though. I've been out in public two fucking times in a month. I thought I'd done enough to keep them off my back."

This was more than regret or humiliation. This was something he'd been struggling with for a while. It must have been difficult dealing with it on his own. It had been years since he'd had someone to open up to. Midoriya knew fully well that he was one of the last people that Bakugou would've chosen to share any of this with, but the one person he would have preferred was out of their reach.

"Keep who off your back?" Midoriya asked, doing his best to stay focused. "Do you know who kidnapped her?"

"I've got an idea," Bakugou replied. "The reason I turned myself in. Like I said, I fucked up. I botched a hit."

"You've never done that according to our records," Midoriya pointed out.

Bakugou shot him an affronted look. "I've never done it on accident. I knew I shouldn't have taken the job, but the money was so good. Even better, the target was interesting and it would be difficult. I love a challenge. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to challenge myself. Gods, I'm such a fucking egomaniac sometimes." Well, he wasn't wrong. "But when I went to do it, I found out that I'd been tricked. They didn't set me up to kill the target; they set me up to kill his family in order to pressure him into doing what they wanted. I don't fucking do shit like that. I don't annihilate families."

"So what? You didn't do it? Whoever it was could've hired someone else."

"Maybe." Bakugou gave him a cold smile. "Except I killed the contact. Stupid, stupid decision, but I was so pissed when I met up with him that I just…" It didn't matter how he'd done it. The fact was that he had. This was perhaps the first time that Midoriya had heard him speak so frankly about his alleged crimes. They weren't so alleged anymore. "And this contractor holds a fuck ton of grudges. Pretty long and deadly ones too."

Midoriya stepped forward and asked again with more force, "Who?"

"Who do you think?" Bakugou retorted. "Who has the most power? The resources? The greed? I tried running and they kept finding me wherever I went. Who's got those kinds of connections around the world?" He sneered in a way that made Midoriya want to shudder, but he stood his ground. It was so bitter. "You think I got this way on my own? Just popped out of my mom with these abilities? Like my first toy was a sniper rifle and I practiced picking off my stuffed animals? I was fucking trained, you dipshit."

A cold chill ran all the way down Midoriya's spine when the horrible implication struck him. "You're not suggesting…"

"Sorry to burst your patriotic bubble," Bakugou said coldly. "Most of my early contracts were from the government. They were the quickest way to get paid. I branched out after that – cut my ties with them. It was better that way. The CIA often subcontracts to outside sources so the blame isn't put on them. It's a neat little trick that keeps politicians, businessmen, companies, and lobbyists squeaky clean. Except I went around and turned on them like an idiot. I made an enemy of someone with way more connections than me."

"Why turn to us then?" Midoriya asked. "You couldn't have been sure that the FBI could keep you safe."

Bakugou dropped into a chair. "You were the most convenient. The FBI is in the public eye the most and has been under a lot of scrutinies recently. Another scandal could rock the already shaky faith the public has in you. Plus, you all are such sticklers for paperwork and a paper trail with my name and words on it are damning at best." He leaned back and let out a breath. "I wasn't about to put my life in the hands of those idiot Marshals. I'm basically running from the CIA or the NSA – hell, maybe both. ATF is useless since I've never been an arm's dealer or drug trafficker, although a few of my targets were. You were the least dangerous option. Fucking Suits."

More like they were the last resort, but now was not the time to argue. Bakugou seemed so certain that whoever had Uraraka was involved in his last hit. Midoriya was an optimist, not an idealist. He knew that there were aspects about his own government and country that were flawed. It was only natural. Humans in general were flawed beings. He liked to look for the good in people, even after all the awful things he'd seen, but he wouldn't deny that everyone had a dark side, even himself. The best people could do was try to overcome that every day.

He knew enough from Aizawa that sometimes bad things were done in the name of good. Looking at a furious and wounded Bakugou now, he could see just that.

Uraraka's kidnapping was not one of those things.

Midoriya chewed on his bottom lip in thought. "If you're saying that our own government is behind this…"

"I could be wrong," Bakugou acknowledged. "It could be someone else entirely. You've seen the list: I've made no shortage of enemies. Comes with the territory." He leaned over so that his forearms were propped on his knees, a thoughtful and intense aura coming over him. "I don't give a shit who it is. They thought that they could just take Uraraka and use her to threaten me? I don't waste time making threats. The number one rule is that you don't bring civilians into this and they crossed that line."

"I wouldn't tell Uraraka that you called her a civilian," Midoriya pointed out.

"Good point." Bakugou raised his head to fix a look on him. There was no arguing with that look on his face. "The only question: are you going to let me pass or am I going to have to go through you? Because I'm getting her back and short of knocking me unconscious and locking me up, you're not stopping me."

The look on Uraraka's face came to mind – that warning look that said he would regret doing anything stupid. The thing was, wanting to save her wasn't stupid. They just had to be smart about it.

"You do realize that you're playing exactly into their hands if you do this," Midoriya pointed out. "They obviously don't know your location. The easiest way to get you would be to lure you out. You're the lamb going to the slaughter."

"I'm a fucking wolf," Bakugou countered.

"Not right now you're not," Midoriya told him, "not if you do what they want. You're putting yourself out in the open and in harm's way. Whether it's for Uraraka or your ego, that's the result they need."

"And I'm telling you I don't give a flying fuck," Bakugou ground out. "I'm the best at what I do. They want a war? I'll bring it to them. I'll take you down too if I have to. No hard feelings. It is what it is. All you suits are the same in the end. Bureaucratic fucks. The job is the job. Screw everyone else."

Midoriya tapped his chin. "Well, my job is to protect you, not necessarily keep you locked up in here. And seeing as how there's nothing I can do to stop you that won't end in this house's destruction…"

A smirk slowly began to grow on Bakugou's face. It was manic and dangerous and warned Midoriya that he was making a huge mistake that Uraraka was going to kill him for later when they saved her. Because they were going to do just that. They were going to save her, consequences be damned. He had gotten into law enforcement because he wanted to protect and save people. He wanted to do good in the world. How could he justify his badge if he didn't do just that? He couldn't idly sit by and do nothing. He couldn't let anyone get away with putting someone in danger, not even those above him.

This wasn't a movie. There was a high possibility that this would blow up in his face. Even if they did get out of this alive and intact, he would probably lose his job, maybe even more. If he didn't do anything though, he wouldn't be able to do this anymore. He couldn't say that he was doing good by doing nothing. The kidnapper had told him not to alert the authorities, but they hadn't said anything about him not coming too.

"This is probably going to end badly," Midoriya sighed, even though he didn't regret his decision.

"For someone it is, most definitely." Bakugou leaned further over and reached underneath the chair he was sitting on. When he sat back up, he was holding a suppressor-ready FNX-45 Tactical handgun with a mount for red dot sights.

Midoriya gawked. "Where did that come from?"

Bakugou pulled a few extra clips out from underneath the cushion. "You're about to find out."

"What?"

"Come on, Suit," Bakugou scoffed as he stood up. "This is a prime weapon, but your government-issued handguns aren't going to do shit. We're gonna need more than three guns if we're gonna save Uraraka."

Well, this wasn't going to bite him in the ass at all. Midoriya shook his head. It didn't matter. They had to save her. He was determined to do it no matter what. That was what this job meant to him. He didn't doubt for a second that she would do the same if their situations were switched, although Bakugou probably wouldn't fight her to save him. So this was what it looked like when an assassin had a heart. Very deadly.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes:** And now we finally get Bakugou's POV on the matter, although I feel like he's stuffing his emotions down so deep that he's hiding them from himself. So this chapter kind of came about randomly. I happened to be ahead on my fic "Karma in Retrograde" and I updated "heroes of the dark," so I was trying to figure out what to write for besides my nano and, well, this popped into my head. I already knew what I wanted this chapter to be, so it made it easier. Is it really a fic of mine if my boy isn't involved?

* * *

Taking Uraraka to Kirishima's shop had been a foolish idea - for more than one reason, considering her kidnappers had probably used the outing as a means to figure out if she meant anything to him. He'd only done it because he knew Kirishima was moving his shop within the week. Even if she told her Suit compatriots about the arms dealer, he would be long gone by the time they attempted a raid. It was why the dealer hadn't even blinked when he'd realized Uraraka was a fed.

Bakugou didn't make the same mistake twice, but apparently he was the type of hitman that took a fed to his arms dealer's shop. He didn't bother with any formalities as he shoved the front door open and stormed to the back with Midoriya on his tail. The Suit was like an annoying itch on his back that he couldn't scratch, never completely leaving and appearing when he least wanted him to. Luckily, he didn't complain or say anything when they left the safehouse and Bakugou led them here.

It was already sparse, nearing the end of the move. All Bakugou could hope was that there were still a few things left. They were going to need a lot more than three handguns to get Uraraka back.

"Oi! Shitty hair!" Bakugou shouted as he zeroed in on the back counter and made his way there.

Kirishima poked his head out from the door. "Bakugou? What are you doing here?"

"We've got a situation," Bakugou said upon reaching the counter. "You got anything left?"

"I might…" Kirishima's eyes flickered to Midoriya coming from behind. "Where's the cute Suit?"

"That's the situation," Bakugou replied grimly.

Now, Kirishima wasn't known to be the brightest bulb in the box, but he'd never been caught by the ATF or flagged by the FBI, so he had to have a bit of intelligence in there a good look at the grim expressions on both Bakugou's and Midoriya's faces, he was able to come up with an answer quick enough. Immediately dismay fell over his face and he shook his head. "Aw, no, I liked her. She seemed good for you."

Bakugou's lips twisted into grimace. "That's what they thought too."

"Do you know who did it?" Kirishima asked.

"I've got an idea," Bakugou replied.

Midoriya cleared his throat. "Any particular reason you dragged me here or did you just need to chat with a friend?"

He was so goddamn polite, no matter what Bakugou said to him, that it was beginning to drive him crazy. Then again, maybe it wasn't his fault. Midoriya wasn't a bad guy. Kind of bland, if he was being honest, but nice. He hated nice in law enforcement. It seemed so false. He'd seen Midoriya's sharp, biting side before though and had come to the disgusting realization that he was just nice, like Uraraka. No wonder the two of them worked well together.

(She would've been happier with someone like Midoriya. Why wasn't she with him? Why was she gone?)

"I don't care what you have," Bakugou told him. "I'll take it."

Kirishima frowned. "I shipped out my best stuff already." He tapped the top of the counter, glancing at Midoriya one more time and then back to him. "Are you sure about this? I mean, are you really doing this?"

"You don't know what I'm doing," Bakugou snapped.

"Your girl gets kidnapped so you go chasing after her guns blazing?" Kirishima guessed. It wasn't much of a guess when there was little else that could be happening right now. Besides, out of everyone in the world, besides a former colleague and maybe the man that had trained him, no one knew him better than Kirishima. Hell, he should probably add Midoriya to the list since it had been his profile that had helped everyone with the case. The guy was creepy good at figuring people out.

(Then he should've known about the mole on his team. He should've figured something out.)

A muscle next to Bakugou's eye twitched. "She's not my girl."

"Not outside of your dreams, at least," Kirishima shot back. Midoriya had the nerve to snort.

"You gonna help me or not?" Bakugou demanded.

Kirishima held up his hands. "I'm gonna help you the best I can. Don't worry about that. You know we're always good and I want to help. I wasn't joking when I said I liked her. You gotta keep all the good Feds you can get."

Bakugou didn't respond to that. He hadn't known there was such a thing until he met Uraraka and even then it made his stomach twist thinking about her. His gaze swept over to Midoriya, who was wearing an openly worried look. The little shit really did care about her. Maybe he wasn't so bad either, just mildly bad in comparison to the rest.

Turning back around to the door that led to the backroom, Kirishima said, "Let me check what I've got left-"

"I'll take it," Bakugou cut in.

"Dude." Kirishima huffed and glanced at him. "You don't even know what I have. It could be a bazooka. It could be a piddly nine mil. You want me to stick you with a government issued glock?" He smiled brightly at Deku, who had the audacity to actually blush. "Not that there's anything wrong with them. They're solid weapons in the right hands."

"Would you stop?" Bakugou griped.

"Alright, alright." Kirishima held up his hands in front of him in surrender. The last thing Bakugou had time for was Kirishima's shenanigans, even though he knew that he acted up like this the most when he was anxious. He must have caught on to Bakugou's pushy attitude and let it affect him. He was so sensitive like that. "Just come on back and see for yourself. Take what you want."

Bakugou grabbed a pen and wrote down some information on the back of a receipt. "Here, take the payment out of this account."

Kirishima was clearly taken aback when Bakugou shoved the paper against his chest, staring at him like he'd either seen a ghost or was just now seeing him for the first time. "Katsuki…"

Bakugou winced at the use of his first name before he jumped over the counter and shoved his way into the back room. He didn't have time for this. No, he'd never given anyone information like that before - shit that could be traced back to him, shit that was personal and only for him - but it didn't matter. He either ended this tied down to the Feds, dead, or captured and sent off to be tortured for information in some hellhole no one could find him in. Privacy and secrecy didn't matter as much.

Midoriya didn't make as much of a scene, lifting up the space that opened up to behind the counter. After giving Kirishima an annoyingly apologetic smile, he followed Bakugou into the room and promptly halted as he choked on his own tongue. If this was startling him, Bakugou would've paid to see how he would've reacted to Kirishima's usual stash of weapons. He'd been kind of lying to Uraraka when he'd said he had the paperwork for everything. In the middle of a move, his more hidden stuff was out in the open being boxed and ready for shipping.

"So are you looking for anything in particular?" Kirishima asked from behind them.

"Were you kidding about that bazooka?" Bakugou responded.

Seemingly faint, Midoriya put a hand to his head. "We're really doing this."

"I hope you weren't too attached to your job," Bakugou said as he began to search one of the crates. Nope, not this one. He didn't need anymore handguns. Maybe Midoriya did though. Whatever Kirishima said, a government issued glock was not a good gun.

After twenty minutes of rifling through containers, Bakugou (and eventually Midoriya after getting over his initial reluctance and muttering about how Uraraka was going to kill him) came up with a decent-sized cache of weapons that would serve them well. Kirishima watched them work together with a guarded gaze, arms folded across his chest as Bakugou picked through his life's work with cold precision. Just as no one had ever been privy to Bakugou's actual Camens Island bank account information, Kirishima had never let customers personally go through his stuff. He asked what a person wanted or liked and he picked out things for them to examine.

This was an unusual day for everyone. Bakugou had known Kirishima since even before he'd more or less cut ties with the CIA, although he was unaware of that fact. He thought that the gun runner was suspicious about his history and believed he'd been government-trained, but he'd never outright asked. Likewise, Bakugou had never asked how Kirishima had fallen into the family business of running guns or how it had become a family business in the first place. In their lines of work, it was better to remain ignorant for the most part.

"Are you good?" Bakugou asked Midoriya, who was wearing a look that was a cross between consternation and bewildered. He probably wasn't sure how he'd gotten here, working alongside a hitman and standing inside an arms dealer's warehouse without the intention of arresting him. There was no way he was going to get out of this smelling of roses. At the best, he'd be suspended - at the worst, killed. The only good that could come out of this was if they saved Uraraka.

And they would save her. He would. He'd dragged her into his shit and he'd drag her right back out into the light where she belonged. Whoever had done this was going to suffer. He would make them pay in spades.

Midoriya scratched his head. "I… I'm not quite sure, to be honest." He pulled his attention away from the bag of weapons sitting on the ground at his feet and looked up at him. "This wasn't what I had in mind for my night when I got up this morning."

"Sorry to interrupt your boring ass life," Bakugou shot back.

"I just wasn't expecting to fall into vigilantism," Midoriya said. He was so honest about it. He could've backed out now and Bakugou wouldn't have fought him over it. He would've mocked him, harassed him, and sneered at him, but he wouldn't have forced him to come. Midoriya could walk out the door with his job and life intact. He took a deep breath and a determined aura came over him. "I'm ready."

Even though he certainly wasn't going along with them, Kirishima hesitated in the back, arms folded across his chest now. "Are you sure about this? It's obviously a trap."

"Yup," Bakugou said as he held up an automatic to check out the sight.

"And they want you to come so they can capture you alive," Kirishima added.

Bakugou added the gun to his stockpile. "Wouldn't be worth as much dead."

"You don't even know if she's still alive," Kirishima pointed out. Midoriya chewed his bottom lip anxiously. "There's a high chance they killed her-"

"She's alive."

Kirishima sighed. "You don't-"

"She's alive!" Bakugou shouted, rounding on his heels and storming over to snatch Kirishima by the front of his ugly ass Hawaiian shirt. "Don't you dare fucking say shit like that, got it?"

"Someone's got to if you're willing to throw yourself directly into the fire," Kirishima retorted. He was concerned. It made Bakugou sneer. He didn't like it. They were friends of sorts, but he didn't know what to do when it looked like someone actually cared about him. That was part of why Uraraka had thrown him so much for a loop. It wasn't just that she was a badass and intuitive; she was genuinely a good person and she'd cared. He didn't like it at all. "You're playing right into their hands and, even worse, you know it and don't care."

Bakugou let go of his shirt and stepped back. "I have to take care of this. It's my responsibility."

"You really gonna throw your life away for a Fed?" Kirishima asked. He glanced at Midoriya behind him. "No offense to you all, but uh, you're a Suit, although you could do with fixing your tie."

"She's more than that," Bakugou grumbled under his breath.

Kirishima eyed him, a sympathetic look crossing his face. "Oh man, you really did it, didn't you?" He shook his head, practically mournful. It pissed Bakugou the fuck off. Why did he have to be so empathetic? It reminded him of Uraraka in a way, which irritated him all the more. "If you're gonna do this - and drag who seems like an actually very nice Suit with a bright career ahead of him into this shit - you know you can't do it with just the two of you."

"We don't have much of a choice," Midoriya sighed, a deep frown on his face. He didn't like what they were doing either. For a Suit though, he had some guts. Bakugou hated to admit that, but Midoriya wouldn't be standing next to a bag of guns and flashbang grenades if he didn't. "I'd call for backup if I could, but I'm worried about a leak. There might not be one, but if there is, they'll find out and then Uraraka really will be killed."

Bakugou most definitely avoided the knowing look that Kirishima gave him and did not respond when he said, "Bro."

Midoriya caught on to the change in his demeanor immediately, furrowing his brow in confusion as he looked from Kirishima to Bakugou. "What?"

"Come on," Kirishima prompted, "you can't do this alone."

"I can," Bakugou ground out, "and I will."

"You can't," Kirishima shot back. "You wanna save her? Put your pride on the back burner and call him. He'll help. You know he will."

Bakugou shook his head. "I told him I'd kill him the next time I saw him. I was pretty clear on that."

Kirishima rolled his eyes. "Get your head out of your ass. If you want to come out of this alive, you're going to need a least one more person and no one knows you better than him. No one works with you better than him, even if you two do fight like an old married couple."

"Who are you talking about?" Midoriya questioned, totally lost.

"I'm not calling him," Bakugou insisted stubbornly.

"Just do it," Kirishima told him. "For Uraraka."

A growl worked its way up the back of Bakugou's throat. He didn't want to do it and he didn't want to admit that he couldn't do this with just Midoriya, but Kirishima was right. If the government really did have a hand in kidnapping Uraraka to lure him out, they would need more than just a few bags of weapons and the two of them. He had a lot of tricks up his sleeve and he had to hope Midoriya was more than just a baby-faced Suit, but there was more than a high chance that wouldn't be enough.

Huffing, absolutely fed up with everything, Bakugou held out a hand and Kirishima handed over his phone. It had been almost a year since he'd last spoken with him, but he would never forget the number. He couldn't forget his face or the press of a ice pick at his neck either. They'd parted on particularly bad terms with Bakugou threatening to shoot him in his face should they ever cross paths again. Still, he dialed the number and placed the call.

"Who the hell are you calling?" Midoriya demanded.

Bakugou put the phone against his ear and turned back around to him. "You remember when I told you how I was trained?" Midoriya nodded. "I wasn't alone."

It would've been better if he had been. He had always preferred to work alone, finding it much more peaceful (all things considered in his line of work), but admittedly some of his strongest and best work had been in a team. In a partnership. Just because he didn't like working with others didn't mean he wasn't capable of it. With the right partner, he was indomindable.

The call was answered and an impassive voice asked, "Who is this?"

"It's me, dipshit," Bakugou responded.

There was a pause on the other end that made him think he was about to get hung up on until the caller finally spoke again. "What are you calling for?"

Bakugou put a hand over his face, took a deep breath, and ground out, "I need your help."

It was almost impossible to tell over the phone (not that it would've been much easier in person), but it sounded like there was a hint of amusement in his voice when he drawled, "I thought you were going to kill me if you saw me."

"You botched one of my jobs, Todoroki," Bakugou snapped. "You're damn right I wanted to kill you."

"I told you: the job wasn't a good one," Todoroki replied in his frustratingly flat tone. It never ceased to piss him the fuck off and it especially did now when he was under so much stress. "You wouldn't have been happy about it after the fact."

"Then you come to me and give me the details," Bakugou snarled. "You don't blow my cover and fuck up my shit!"

They might've been talking over the phone, but he could see Todoroki idly shrugging his shoulders. "It was the quickest solution - and you're not always the easiest person to level with."

Bakugou wanted to argue with him, but it would only prove him further right. If there was anyone that knew his ins and outs, it was Todoroki. They two of them had trained together under the CIA before being sent to opposite ends of the world. No one matched his records but him, sometimes even topping them, although Bakugou was loathed to admit such things. He had the perfect impassiveness for an assassin, but it turned out that he was much better suited as a spy. While he was much more proficient with a sniper rifle than Bakugou, he didn't like killing much.

They'd made an excellent team until Bakugou had gone off on his own. It wasn't long after that when Todoroki simply vanished. The whole thing had made him wary. If the CIA got fed up with his private contracting, it was very likely that the person they would send after him was Todoroki. Indeed, when he showed up a year later on Bakugou's doorstep of his safehouse in Budapest, he'd thought that was exactly what was happening, but no, he'd only been there to offer him a job. He'd left the CIA as well and gone underground.

Maybe he fancied himself as some sort of international vigilante, but Bakugou knew a killer when he saw one. No, Todoroki didn't like it - and neither did Bakugou - but he was good at it. He was made for it. There had been no mistaking it when Todoroki had held that sat over top of him and stared him down in the eyes with the coldest look he'd ever seen, holding an ice pick at his jugular.

"Listen, I don't give a shit about that anymore, okay? I'm willing to let bygones be bygones." Swallowing his pride was a lot more painful than it looked, especially when it came to Todoroki, but it had to be done if they were going to save Uraraka. Every second she was held captive made him tick closer to exploding. Who knew what kind of torture they were resorting to if they were? He didn't want to think about it, but every time he got a moment to breathe, his mind went in that dark direction. "Are you willing to help me or not?"

"That depends," Todoroki replied. "I heard you were in bed with the Feds."

"I am," Bakugou said. Not in the way he'd like to be, but he couldn't even think of that now.

"So how do I know this isn't a trap to get a lighter sentence?" Todoroki asked.

It was a valid question, one he would be asking if the tables were turned. "Because I'd rather hunt you down and kill you myself then hand you over to the people that made us."

"Now that is something I can believe." Todoroki didn't even sound upset. It was the truth. Neither one of them wanted to go back to the CIA. They'd done their time and they'd escaped to live their own lives. They hadn't been pretty and they hadn't been kind. They were both stained with blood and likely would keep doing so. If the night went according to plan, there would probably be a lot of blood on his hands. He didn't care. "What do you need?"

That was it. That was all he needed. In a messed up way, Todoroki kind of reminded him of Midoriya. Even though it went against everything in him, despite the fact that it was Bakugou, someone he hated, here he was, ready to jump in to help. For a spy, he was kind of a good person, which made the kills under his belt all the more fucked up. He'd heard Todoroki had left the CIA after a job had disillusioned him. It made sense. He'd always been a little more prickly about things.

"Looks like my past is finally catching up with me," Bakugou admitted. "Someone kidnapped someone very important to me in order to get me out in the open again and I intend to get them back."

"Someone very important to you?" Now Todoroki was interested. "Have you gone soft, Bakugou?"

"Not soft enough that I won't kill everyone who had a hand in this," Bakugou said without any hesitation. "She matters, okay? And she's innocent. She got pulled into this because of me and I… I can't just sit back and let something bad happen to her when I'm the one that fucked up. I think the old Powers that Be are behind this and I intend to end it right here. So are you in or out?"

Todoroki took far too long to consider, although Bakugou knew this was a heavy decision. The two of them didn't get along one bit, no, and they had threatened to kill each other, but they'd also saved each other countless of times. It pained him to admit it, but he wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for Todoroki and there was a chance Uraraka would not make it through the day if he didn't help.

"Give me the details," Todoroki finally said.

Bakugou did not sigh in relief. He wouldn't be relieved until Uraraka was safe in his arms and everyone that had tried to harm her was dead. "First, how close are you to the warehouse from the German diplomat job? You're useless to me if you're out of the country. We're on a clock."

"Close enough to be of use."

"Good, then listen up." Bakugou told him everything he knew, which, to be honest, wasn't much. For his part, Todoroki didn't interrupt him or ask questions until the very end. He'd always been good about that. Their superior officers had loved him while they labeled him a troublemaker. It was why they'd been paired up so much - in hopes that Todoroki's unattached demeanor would calm Bakugou down - but instead it had created a bond that had survived past death threats, disappearances, botched hits, and more.

By the time he finished, he could tell that Todoroki was already set up to leave. It was honestly amazing how quick he had been to help him after their last meeting. Then again, deep down, Bakugou knew Todoroki was a good person. Who knew what kind of person he would've been if his childhood hadn't chewed him up and spit him out into the perfect person for the CIA to scoop up and mold into what they wanted? Having come from a loving home, Bakugou didn't have that excuse. He didn't know what made him tick this way.

Todoroki hid it well, but no one was as good as he was without being a little fucked up. It just was what it was. People from bad homes were less likely to want to go back. He could pick up and leave without even packing a bag. There was nothing tying him down. The government should've expected him to leave eventually to do his own thing. It had taken him longer to leave than Bakugou had expected, but it had always been so hard to get a read on him.

Still Bakugou knew him at least a little. Of course he would step up to help him in this. The people that once tugged on their leashes kidnapping someone innocent to get back at him? That was right up Todoroki's alley of moral injustice and abuse of power.

"Bakugou?" Todoroki's voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

"What?" he barked in return.

"It sucks, doesn't it?"

"What sucks?"

Todoroki let out a breath that almost sounded like a soft chuckle. "Having a heart."

"Fuck you," Bakugou snapped.

"I'll meet you the rendezvous point. You just make sure you have everything together - and keep an eye on that Fed. Who's the say he isn't in on it guiding you to do this?"

Bakugou's gaze flickered to Midoriya, who was watching them intensely. His freckled baby face did make him look pretty innocent, but no, there wasn't a conniving bone in his body. He was a good person. "We're good."

"If you say so," Todoroki sighed. "I trust your judgement."

He hung out without another word of disagreement. Bakugou's stomach twisted and he was scowling as he tossed the phone back to Kirishima, but… They needed this. He knew his worth and his skills and he also knew it didn't amount of much if he was doing this on his own. Midoriya was in over his head and probably knew that too, but he wasn't saying anything either.

They were both stupid for doing this and they were very likely to get themselves killed even with Todoroki's help.

"If we do manage to save her and get out alive," Midoriya said, "Uraraka is going to kill us."

He honestly hoped Uraraka would be capable of beating him over the head with the butt of her glock. He would take it over never seeing her again. He'd been so foolish. Neither Todoroki nor Kirishima would let him live this down if he did make it out alive. Bakugou didn't just care about people. He didn't.

But holy fuck did the idea of Uraraka being in an enemy's hand send his heart racing into overdrive. He couldn't take it. He wanted her back - he needed her back - and he was going to get her, one way or another.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes:** This chapter was a pleasure to write, especially considering I hadn't planned on updating it this week.

* * *

Meeting Todoroki in the parking lot of a fried chicken joint wasn't at the top of Bakugou's list of things he wanted to do, but that was the address Todoroki sent to him for the rendezvous point and he wasn't in the position to complain. If the stupid shit actually came through and showed up, it would be saying something. He wasn't known for letting people down, but the two of them didn't exactly have a good history. They had worked very well together; they had also fought each other a lot. If he didn't try to kill Bakugou on the spot, he would owe Todoroki a lot more than that.

The fact that he wasn't luring Todoroki into a position to kill him was already a shock, seeing as how he'd been fantasizing about their next encounter for a while now. For the longest time, Bakugou had imagined that the next time he saw Todoroki, he'd be pointing a gun at him. Quite frankly, he wasn't too certain he wouldn't be doing that now, even though he had been the one to call him. Todoroki was...unpredictable. Calculated. Cold. Clever.

But he was the last person that Bakugou would've expected to turn on the CIA and he had done it.

In the passenger seat of the car, Special Agent Midoriya looked out the window of the car, an anxious look on his face as he bit at his fingernails. He wasn't handling this well, but then again, Bakugou hadn't expected him to. It was one thing to say that they would do anything to help save a friend. It was quite another to outright defy the government, lie to his superior officers, and break the law in a hundred different ways in order to do so.

The CIA had trained Bakugou to break the law. It wasn't so bad now. It was a bit like breathing.

Mr. Top Notch FBI Agent was struggling though and it showed. It had been one thing leaving the safe house without alerting their team. He'd put the feed on a loop so it looked like they were watching a movie, but, according to him, Agent Shinsou would figure that out soon enough. Going to Kirishima's arms shop and loading up on weapons had nearly made him faint, but he had handled it, perhaps only because Kirishima was a good salesman and had dialed up the charm. Calling up another hitman to help them out had him bouncing on his feet, but he hadn't disagreed that they needed backup.

Apparently, out of all the things, stealing a car was what finally crossed the line. It was perhaps the least of their crimes and worries, but Midoriya hated the idea of involving a civilian in their daring rescue. Someone might really need this car. It might be all they had. This was too much. He had so many damn complaints as he had watched Bakugou break in and hotwire the thing. The only reason he was sitting in it silently now was because Bakugou had pulled out a wad of cash and stuffed it in the mailbox. It was more than the price of the car. That shut Midoriya up quickly enough. Kirishima had told him to pay him back later, so he had plenty on him.

"What if he isn't coming?" Midoriya asked, his green eyes shining with alertness.

"He's coming," Bakugou reassured him as he picked at his blunt nails with a knife.

Midoriya made a nervous sound. "But what if he's on their side?"

"Then I'll have to kill him," Bakugou simply replied.

"So much for honor among killers," Midoriya muttered dryly as he surveyed the parking lot for the hundredth time.

There was one thing that Bakugou would admit about him: nothing got passed him. As much as Bakugou hated to admit it, the FBI agent was clever, perhaps too much for his own good, and he was brave. He hadn't expected Midoriya to do this - to go so far to save his partner. Feds weren't supposed to be like that. They had sticks up their asses - they were all about the rules - and here he was, in his loafers and cheap suit with his tie still too damn short, breaking his oath to the US government.

The driver's side mirror suddenly exploding caught them both off guard. Okay, maybe a few things got passed him, but Bakugou had begrudgingly been equally surprised. Before Midoriya could panic and try to bolt, Bakugou locked the doors and the fed gawked at him incredulously. He glared back at him. Only when there was a polite tap on his window did he look away and connect eyes with a familiar mismatched gaze outside the glass.

Upon rolling down his window, Bakugou was greeted with Shouto Todoroki asking, "Have you tried their hot chicken here? It's criminally good. I'd pay a lot more than they're charging for this."

"Fried chicken isn't exactly on my diet plan," Bakugou shot back.

Todoroki stared at him with a blank gaze, a drumstick held in front of his mouth. "You didn't go vegetarian again, did you? That worked out so poorly for you last time."

"It was for a cover, you bastard!" Bakugou snapped.

"Whatever the reason was, all you did was whine like a baby," Todoroki responded, completely ignoring the way Bakugou was steaming in the driver's seat. He took a bite, chewed on the meat thoughtfully, and then leaned down to look further into the car. "This the Fed?"

For his part, instead of cowering in fear, Midoriya demanded, "Did you have to shoot off the mirror? We're borrowing this." He still sounded a little nervous, but that was only to be expected. Through trial and error during his time at the two safehouses, Bakugou had found that Midoriya was emotional and got nervous easily - but he also wasn't a pushover and would fight back if he felt pressed enough. With Uraraka's life on the line, his career down the drain, and in the presence of two hitmen, this was definitely one of those times.

A ghost of a smile appeared on Todoroki's face as he looked back to Bakugou. "Oh, he's so green. Do you remember when we were that naive?"

"I was never that bad," Bakugou insisted. The truth was that he didn't remember. Surely there had been a time - he hadn't been a natural born killer from the start - but after years of brutal training and missions that brought him so far down that he eventually had to cut ties and go off on his own, that time in his life was gone. As far as the CIA was concerned, when it came to people like him and Todoroki, who were in so deep that they weren't even technically a part of them, it was easier to not remember. It made them better at their jobs.

And Bakugou was damn fucking good at his job. So was Todoroki.

"Well, you brought him, so you're accountable for him," Todoroki declared before continuing to eat.

"I can take care of myself," Midoriya declared.

Todoroki fixed him with a flat look. "We don't even know what we're getting into. For all you know, there could be an entire army waiting to ambush us because Bakugou was emotionally compromised." Bakugou immediately tensed up at the implication, but before he could argue, Todoroki continued, "There could be no one watching her. There could be a single guard. There could be traps, cameras, you name it - all of it just waiting for someone to spring them."

"I know that," Midoriya grumbled.

"Then know this," Todoroki said in a harsh tone, "we're expendable. They need Bakugou, not us. We'll be killed without a moment's hesitation. We're not a priority; we're an obstacle." He plucked what looked like a jalapeno popper out of his bag and took a large bite. "Now should they kill us? No, we'd be much more useful alive. You're a fed, so that goes without saying, and if Bakugou is willing to work with you, then you're smart."

"And you?" Midoriya asked suspiciously.

Todoroki finished off the drumstick and dropped the bone in the bag. "I'm a former CIA agent turned worldwide freelance vigilante. I should hope I'd be useful to anyone."

"Still got that ego, I see," Bakugou sniped.

"I know my worth," Todoroki responded. "Yours just got too big, hence why you had to go to the Feds." He shook his head and folded the top of his bag, apparently done with his food for now. "Why did you have to cross them? You know that's a stupid idea. That was the number one rule. We were allowed to leave and do what we want, but we were to never cross them."

Bakugou glared up at him. "It never bothered you that it still sometimes felt like you were attached to that leash?"

"Of course it did," Todoroki said, "but I never let myself think that I was any better for leaving."

He didn't like it. He hated the way Todoroki thought, spoke, acted - the whole nine yards. He mostly hated Todoroki because he reminded him of himself and his own issues. It wasn't that they were alike. They were miles apart and always would be. There was something about him that always dragged Bakugou back to those days when they had worked together. It wasn't their freelance work together after the CIA that he saw when he looked at Todoroki. It was when it was them and the mission and that was it.

Todoroki would've put a bullet in the back of his head had their superiors told him to do so. Bakugou might've done that now, but he wasn't so sure he would've done the same, at least not without some hesitation. Did that make him a better person or a weaker one? He didn't know.

Even worse, the only thing he could think was that he wanted to ask Uraraka. Would she think it was good of him? Would she consider it a sign of weakness? Had her boss told her to kill him, would she have done it? No, he didn't think so, but what did he know? What did he really know of her? She had told him a few things about herself, begrudingly so, and he had guessed some others that she copped to, but outside of her suit, did he really know anything about her? Did she really see him as anything more than a job at the end of the day? He wanted to think that she did, but it was stupid. It was so fucking stupid.

She's too good for you, the voice in the back of his mind scolded him. How can you ask her if she thinks you're capable of being a better person when you will never reach her level?

Even if she was too good for him - even if none of this mattered because Uraraka was the sun and he was a pile of mud at best - that was why he had to do this. It wouldn't prove that he was a better person. It wouldn't even prove that he was a decent one because more than likely he was going to have to kill a few people in order to save her. And quite frankly, he didn't care. He should care - Uraraka would care - but he didn't. The fact that Todoroki was able to eat some fried chicken and sides so casually showed he didn't care. Midoriya might've been conflicted, but he knew damn well that they weren't going to come out of this clean if they survived.

By doing this, Bakugou was indirectly proving that he wasn't a good enough person for Uraraka. He had to live with that - and he would. He was okay with it. At this point, all he wanted was for her to be alive. He couldn't let anyone else innocent die because of him, least of all her. She'd only been dragged into this mess because his interest had been caught and he'd been too obvious about it. He never should've let her in. He never should have made it a game to tease her in order to find more about her. She was a fed and she didn't matter and she…

She was what he wanted. He hadn't wanted someone or something that much in so long. He'd forgotten. The CIA was good at stomping that desire out too.

"So are we really doing this?" Todoroki asked.

Bakugou scoffed. "You think I'd meet you in this shit place if I wasn't serious?"

"No, I was just waiting for you to work up the nerves to actually go," Todoroki said, which only pissed off Bakugou even more. Midoriya wisely stayed silent for once. Normally he was ready to talk at a moment's notice, but this whole thing had put him highly on edge. "Do you have a plan?"

"I'll figure out something," Bakugou grumbled.

"Which means you don't have one at all." Todoroki sighed. "We'll talk about it on the way there."

When Todoroki turned and walked away, Bakugou leaned out of his head out of the window. "Oi, you ever stop and think that I might actually need that mirror to check shit?"

"I figured you'd just stick your head out of the window and give them a clear headshot," Todoroki responded without looking back, lifting a hand up.

Bakugou scowled and pulled his head back inside the car. Fucking asshole. It irritated him to hell and back that he had been put in the position to call him asking for help. For some reason, it pissed him off even more that Todoroki had come anyways. He had to put aside his pride (and his dignity) if he was going to save Uraraka. That was all that mattered at the end of the day.

Feeling eyes on him, Bakugou turned to glare at Midoriya and barked, "What?"

Midoriya held up his hands in surrender and didn't say anything in return, but he didn't have to for Bakugou to know what he was thinking. He'd really gone fucking soft for a Fed. Unbelievable. If someone had told him a few months ago that this would happen to him, he would've laughed and then shot them in their face. There was no possible way he would give a damn about a fucking Suit. No way in hell. First of all, he didn't do feelings; and second, he didn't do law enforcement. That was a rule.

A rule that Uraraka shattered and scattered into a thousand pieces over his life.

"It's okay, you know," Midoriya said in the silence. Bakugou didn't look over at him. He started the car, put it in reverse, and swung out of the parking spot. "To be scared, I mean."

"I'm not fucking scared," Bakugou snapped, forcing the car into drive and jamming his foot down on the gas. It forced Midoriya to slam back into his seat, but he seemed to have expected it. He wasn't scared. He refused to be scared. He couldn't afford to be. Scared made people do stupid things and stupid things caused people to die.

He gripped the steering wheel tightly with one hand as he fished his phone out of his pocket with the other. Todoroki was right about them needing to come up with at least some sort of plan and the easiest way would be to do it over speaker phone. They could pass information and ideas as they drove to the location where Uraraka was being held. They couldn't afford to waste anymore time. She didn't have much.

 _You don't even know if she's still-_

No, he wasn't going to think like that. He couldn't. She was alive. She had to be. If she wasn't… No one was going to come out of this alive if she wasn't. He'd make damn sure.

Uraraka's eyes snapped open behind the blindfold when she felt a hand on her cheek. She tried to jerk her head away from the touch, but then the hand gripped her roughly by the jaw and kept her face forward.

"Calm down," Shindo's voice told her. She went still. At least it was him. She had heard a few other voices, all of them male, and had feared it was one of them. So far, while a few threats and laced comments had been hurled her way, none of them had touched her. She wondered if they had been ordered to listen to him or if there was someone else that had instructed them not to harm her.

Well, severely harm her at any rate. She had no doubt that would come soon enough. Would Shindo do the honors or would he have someone else take a go at her?

Sitting obediently still, when her blindfold was pulled off, Uraraka was forced to close her eyes upon being assaulted with a bright, glaring light. She hadn't been able to see for a while and it took time for her vision to adjust from going suddenly from darkness to light. Once it was no longer painful, she blinked and found Shindo watching her very closely with a guarded but curious expression on his face. Even if her mouth hadn't been taped shut, she would have stayed silent. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of listening to her ask questions.

"They're starting to get antsy," Shindo stated. She furrowed her brow. Who was getting antsy? Which government or criminal had paid him off to get him to betray his own country? His friends? His honor? "They're worried Bakugou might not come for you."

 _He won't,_ Uraraka thought, hoping Shindo could read the declaration in her glare. Or at least he wouldn't if he was smart - and Bakugou was very smart. It was what made him so dangerous. She couldn't possibly mean that much to him. She was just a prettier-looking Suit. He wouldn't come save her.

(Would he?)

"I think they need to be patient," Shindo proclaimed. "He'll come." He smiled, one that she had seen a hundred times from him and looked so normal and kind. It nearly made her shiver now. "After all…" He lifted a hand to run his fingers through her hair before gently sliding a hand over her cheek. "I'd hate to see someone as pretty as you get uglied up for no reason. It wouldn't be right. He wouldn't like that either."

She jerked away from his touch, repulsion rolling around in her gut. Every time he touched her, she felt the urge to get sick or snap at him. He seemed almost sad sometimes, but that was his own damn fault. He had been the one to betray everything for a stack of cash. What right did he have to be sad over what was happening? Maybe he didn't like that he had to kidnap her - that she was the lynchpin in the plan - but he had still done it. He had still bound, gagged, and blindfolded her.

He would probably still let her get tortured if Bakugou didn't come and they needed information. He just might not be there to watch.

"We could make this much easier on the both of us," Shindo pointed out. Uraraka narrowed her eyes at him. If he thought she was just going to talk, he had her pegged all wrong. He should know her better than that by now. They'd worked together for a while now. He picked at the edge of the tape over her mouth. "If I pull this off, are you going to scream?"

Uraraka shook her head. She wasn't going to scream, but if his fingers were still close to her mouth, she might bite. A second later, he peeled the tape off her mouth. It stung, but she didn't care as she took in a gulp of fresh air. She leaned her head back against the chair, gasping shakily as she tried to steady her breathing. Being gagged forced her to breathe in through her nose and she couldn't get enough air.

"There," Shindo said, almost fondly. "That's much better, isn't it?"

"Oh, go fuck yourself," Uraraka spat out.

Shindo tsked. "You've always had a surprisingly dirty mouth. It's actually one of your more attractive qualities."

"Thanks," Uraraka muttered dryly.

He knew she didn't mean it, but it didn't stop him from teasingly replying, "You're welcome." He dropped the piece of tape on the ground and stood up straight. "I don't want to do this the hard way, Uraraka - and I don't want you to get any more hurt than you already are."

"Like I'm going to come out of this alive either way," Uraraka said. She wasn't delusional. Kidding herself into thinking that there was any outcome where she didn't leave this place in a bodybag was foolish. There was no way she would be able to leave alive. Maybe it didn't matter if she'd seen Shindo's face since he wasn't planning on sticking around anyways, but they wouldn't want any loose ends. "You're stupid for thinking that you're going to be left alone too. What's keeping them from killing you now? You've done your part."

Shindo shook his head. "I've got my insurances. Besides, I'm still on the clock. Our team is none the wiser yet." He chuckled. "I've already got a call about you missing. I'm doing everything I can to find you."

"You're a bastard," Uraraka growled. "They're going to figure it out soon enough."

"Probably," Shindo admitted, shrugging like it was nothing. "Shinso has never particularly cared for me. I think he was disappointed when he couldn't find anything on me when they did a check for a mole after the attack on the first safehouse. It helps that I'm not the one under such extreme scrutiny at the moment."

Uraraka frowned suspiciously. "What does that mean?"

"It appears as if the golden boy of the FBI isn't so golden after all," Shindo explained. "Midoriya went awol shortly after I sent that photoshoot of you to his phone - along with Bakugou. There's been no word from him since. For all intents and purposes, it looks like he's absconded with our favorite hitman."

Midoriya what? Despite the fact that she was being held captive, horror finally began to creep up on her. Uraraka didn't know what to think about that. She didn't want to consider the implications. Sure, so Midoriya had some unconventional methods when it came to the job sometimes that their superiors didn't always approve of, but it wasn't like him to completely go off the radar, especially with someone as volatile and suspect as Bakugou. The two of them didn't get along.

Had... Had something happened to him? Had Bakugou decided the FBI couldn't keep him safe and was forced to go through Midoriya in order to escape? No, he wouldn't do that. (Yes, he would. He was a murderer. A paid killer. It would be nothing to him to get rid of another fed, especially one he didn't like.) Or had Midoriya figured out that there was a mole on their team and decided to go off the grid to keep Bakugou safe? Yes, yes, that sounded more like him. It would infuriate Aizawa and his higher ups, but if he didn't know who he could trust outside of himself, then it made sense for him to keep everyone in the dark about Bakugou's new whereabouts.

"Midoriya must have moved him to another location," Uraraka said quietly, half to herself.

"I've considered that," Shindo replied. "More than likely, he knows there's a mole, but he's not sure who. That's what the others think he's done - he's gone into hiding. I don't think so though." Uraraka peered at him. He and Midoriya had worked together too. He knew Midoriya's habits just as well as her - and they both knew that Midoriya could sometimes be very unpredictable in order to save someone. "I think he teamed up with Bakugou to save you."

"No," Uraraka insisted, shaking her head. "He wouldn't do that. He knows I'd kick his ass. The job comes first."

Shindo tilted his head. "Do you really think that?" She bit her lip. Yes. No. Maybe. It was hard to say. What would she have done in his position? Would she have trashed her career and forgot the job to save him? "Midoriya is too good of a person to leave you to be tortured and killed. It would eat away at him. As for Bakugou, well, you somehow managed to warm that cold heart of his. There's no way he's letting you go. No, they're coming here. I know it."

"If they are, you don't stand a chance," Uraraka swore vehemently.

"Two against all of us?" Shindo laughed. "Bakugou is good, but there's no way he's that good."

"He is," Uraraka declared. "You better get running now. Because if he doesn't kill you, I will make damn sure you pay for this."

"That's what I like about you, Uraraka," Shindo said. "You're so full of grit and determination, even in the face of so much awful shit." He looked at his watch. "You better either hope Bakugou shows up soon - or you're gonna be facing a little more than just talking to me. The others aren't going to be as nice."

Uraraka didn't respond. She knew what he meant. At Quantico, they had been briefly trained on how to handle being tortured. There wasn't a lot they could do that wouldn't be inhumane or cruel. The FBI wasn't like the CIA where they probably tortured recruits in order to toughen up intelligence officers. For the most part, they were taught that torture wasn't a good source of information. Most of what was gleaned from it wasn't very useful. Shindo knew that. It didn't stop people from still resorting to it when they wanted answers. He knew that as well.

The clock was ticking. If she could just get a little loose from her restraints… Shit, she didn't know. She needed to get out of here. Bakugou and Midoriya couldn't come here. She hated to agree with Shindo in any way, but they couldn't possibly win with just the two of them. All she could do was pray that they had run away and hid, but she didn't know. Fear was starting to trickle in, drip by drip, and it was making it difficult for her to focus on escaping.

Uraraka took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Now was not the time to panic. She'd need her strength for the torture. She couldn't lose it now, not when they depended on her too.


	8. Chapter 8

They checked their gear as soon as they parked, but that didn't stop Midoriya from going over them again. From the corners of his eyes, Bakugou watched him pick through the trunk methodically, muttering under his breath as he reassured himself nothing would malfunction. Even if he didn't like him, the Suit was surprisingly knowledgeable when it came to weapons. Underneath his wild green hair was a wealth of knowledge. Too bad he was so fucking annoying that no one would want to talk to him about it, except Kirishima, who was too goddamn nice.

"At least he knows his stuff," Todoroki pointed out.

Bakugou snorted and reached into the bag of fast food to dig out a jalapeno popper. It was cold by now after the long drive, but he didn't care. Todoroki had bought more than enough food for two people, as if he'd been preparing for this to be his last meal. Maybe he was. There was a high possibility that none of them would make it out of here alive. Their surveillance proved that they were outgunned, outmanned, and mostly in the dark. Maybe that was why he suggested they meet in a shithole restaurant that he loved.

Leaning against Todoroki's car beside him, Bakugou tried to pay attention to the warehouse a way's down where Uraraka was being held. It was possible they were wrong - she could've been kept elsewhere while they were lured here - but he didn't think so. He couldn't have said why he believed that when it would've been the smart thing to do, but the background in the pictures Midoriya was sent matched up with his memory of the job he'd done here. Even Todoroki agreed on that point.

Despite his attention normally being laser-focused, every time Midoriya spoke a little louder, his eyes went to him. It irritated the hell out of him and he chomped down on the food a little more aggressively each time. Couldn't he freak out a little quieter? The fact that he was standing this close to Todoroki and not trying to murder him put him on edge even more. Once upon a time, the two of them were one of the best teams the CIA had ever seen. They got shit done well. Even after they cut ties and eventually worked together again, people knew not to cross them. They were a dangerous pair.

To others and each other.

Bakugou had forgotten how quiet Todoroki could be. It was disquieting. Stealth was a part of the job, one even he had become familiar with despite his loudmouth tendencies and explosive personality, but it was more than that for him. He was simply...quiet. That unsettled people, even him. Sometimes their superior officers didn't know what to do with him. He was so damn hard to read, even now after knowing him for years. Shouldn't they be trying to kill each other? Why was he here, quietly observing this area, letting Bakugou eat his food?

"Why are you doing this?" Bakugou blurted, the words escaping him before he finished thinking them through.

Todoroki turned his head and looked at him impassively, that damned unreadable expression on his face. "Because it's the right thing to do."

"Bullshit." Bakugou glared. "You're not some perfect guardian or savior. I know you better than that."

"You don't think I'd risk my life in hopes of doing one good thing that might balance all the awful things I did?"

"I think you're smart enough to know that isn't how it works."

After considering him for a moment, Todoroki looked back to the warehouse. "It is the right thing to do. Even when we weren't getting paid to do something, we did them because those were the orders - for our country, to save lives, whatever other excuse we told ourselves to sleep at night. Sure, the jobs I take now are with the hope that I am genuinely helping people, but I hurt a lot of others to get there. Everything I do is tainted with that darkness."

"It's not going to be much better here." There was no way in hell they were going to save Uraraka without shedding a little blood. Maybe he'd try to go for non-lethal shots. He had a feeling that was Midoriya's plan, a way to make this not so bad. He didn't have it in him to kill someone unless it was for a damn good reason. He was too good of a person to have someone's life on his hands and Uraraka would hate him for it if he did.

Bakugou could try to be better. He could try to do what Uraraka would want, even if she had killed a few assassins the first time they were attacked. That at least been in self-defense. He wanted to be better. He was prepared for Uraraka to cut him out of her life once this was over. Even if she didn't, once he went into WitSec, as shitty as he thought the program was, he'd more than likely never see her again. No, he wouldn't see her again. She was going to be out of his life either way.

It didn't matter. As long as she was alive, he would do whatever the Feds wanted. He'd cooperate fully. No more piddling around or playing games. He was done.

"Every other job I've done had an objective - a reason - be it to make money or listen to orders. I got something out of it in the end." Todoroki shrugged. "I get nothing here. I'm not even sure I'll get satisfaction, if I'm being honest. It would be better for me to turn on you and turn you in." Bakugou stiffened at the thought. "That's what someone in my shoes should do. Lace a few of the jalapeno poppers with a sedative since I know you love to eat spicy food. Kill the Fed. Make it look like he was the mole and was turned on."

Dropping the remaining half of the jalapeno popper on the ground, Bakugou muttered, "Way to kill the mood."

"I'm simply saying: it would be in my best interest to do that." Todoroki fished the last popper out of the bag on the hood of his car and ate it without mercy. Asshole. "Helping you of all people with what is a suicide mission at best to save a Fed who I've never met and don't give a shit about is not."

"You suddenly develop a conscience in the last six months?"

"I'm not sure," Todoroki admitted, "but apparently you did."

He had and he didn't like it. Bakugou twisted his lips and turned his attention back on Midoriya, who had finally gone silent now that his inventory count was over. He stood still, one hand on the car and the other over his face, breathing deeply. He looked like a wreck, but not as much of one as Bakugou felt.

A part of him couldn't believe he was doing this - it went against everything in him - but another part of him was desperate for it. Todoroki was right. This was a good thing and it had been a long time since he'd done a good thing. Maybe it was a little selfish too, but it was hard to be selfish about something that could possibly kill him or get him into even deeper and hotter water. The only other time he could think about was the job he botched that landed him in this mess with the Feds to begin with, but even then, he'd been more pissed about being lied to than anything.

"Not gonna lie," Todoroki hummed. "I didn't expect you to go soft."

"Give me an hour," Bakugou snapped. "You aren't gonna see soft in there."

A faint smile crossed Todoroki's face, one that he couldn't decide was mocking or not. "You really care about her, don't you?"

Bakugou was not going to talk about Uraraka with this bastard. "Shut up."

"No, it's good. It…" Todoroki took a deep breath. "It kind of gives me hope."

"For real?" Bakugou shook his head. "That's fucking cheesy."

"You were never willing to risk your life for someone before," Todoroki pointed out. "Something changed. I didn't think that was possible for people like us."

It was the truth. Even when they worked together, if Todoroki fell into some bad shit, Bakugou wouldn't have gone back to save him. If he got himself into something, he could damn well get himself out of it. After all, he was a professional. Working together did not mean having each other's backs, which this felt a lot like. It was weird and he didn't like it, but it...didn't feel wrong. Had he been missing out on even more than he thought?

"Guys?" Midoriya prompted, interrupting the conversation. For once, Bakugou was grateful to hear his voice. The FBI agent held out his phone as he walked over to them. "We've reached our time limit."

Bakugou snatched the prepaid phone out of his hands to check the time. They'd been forced to abandon Midoriya's government issued phone in order to escape detection. Agent Shinso was damn good at his job and they hadn't wanted to run the risk of clashing with the good people - if they were good. Midoriya was certain that Shinso wasn't a mole since he had vetted him himself, but the dead air between them now that they'd gone dark bred uncertainty.

"Do we push it?" Midoriya asked.

"Not unless you want Uraraka to be tortured," Bakugou said.

"More than likely she's already gone through the first round of that," Todoroki put in, which wasn't fucking helpful at all. Bakugou glared at him while Midoriya shifted uncomfortably on his feet. People heard the word "torture" and didn't blink. They knew what it was, but they didn't know, not really. Midoriya had probably gone through lectures on it at Quantico, but there was no way in hell that they could prepare him for the reality. It wasn't like he had ever been shoved in a box for nearly twenty-four hours as a part of his training. "Or not."

Bakugou shoved the phone back into Midoriya's hands. "Yeah, it's a bit too late for the attempt at positivity."

Midoriya cradled the phone like it was something precious. "So?"

"I say we wait," Todoroki said.

"But-" Midoriya blanched. "She'll be tortured."

"We're already playing on their field," Todoroki countered. "We need one advantage at least and time is our one only option at this point."

Fuck, Bakugou also forgot how cold Todoroki could be. Then again, he had a point. On one mission they'd worked together for the CIA, Bakugou had allowed himself to be captured in order to gain access to their target's safehouse. Saving him was part of the mission, but goddamn if Todoroki hadn't taken his sweet ass time. Bakugou still had the burn marks on his chest, the scars having never fully healed. Asshole.

Bakugou sighed. "He's right."

"What?" Midoriya rounded on him quickly. "But Uraraka-"

"She can handle herself," Bakugou cut in. "She's strong. She can take it."

"That doesn't mean she should," Midoriya shot back, waving a frantic hand. "We're right here. We can't just leave her like that. We don't even know what kind of torture they might resort to if they think you aren't coming."

Anger flared in Bakugou's mind, causing him to snap and snatch Midoriya by the front of his shirt. "You don't think I don't know that, you dipshit? I wanna rush in there right now. I want to fucking save her and kill the bastards that thought to even touch her! But we're at a disadvantage. We're probably going to die. And all I can think about is how I just wanna see her and-"

Behind him, Todoroki coughed, as if to politely remind him that he was speaking his true feelings out loud and might not want to do that. Bakugou snapped his mouth shut and pressed his lips into a thin line. Instead of staring at him with wide eyes or looking at him in fear, when he returned his attention back to Midoriya, he found a similar angry fire in the agent's eyes. Maybe he was scared, but he was furious too. Uraraka was important to him as well, after all, and it would do Bakugou good to remember this wasn't just about him.

Truth be told, Midoriya had thrown away and was risking a lot more than him to do this.

Letting go of his shirt, Bakugou shoved Midoriya away from him and stalked to the trunk of his car. He didn't want to look at the Suit. He only reminded him of Uraraka, which pissed him off further. Why in the hell had he got stuck with the two good fucking feds?

Todoroki stepped forward and laid a hand on Midoriya's shoulder. "I know waiting is painful. There were so many times when all I could do was sit and watch as something awful happened or risk blowing my cover. All those times I could've done something to protect or help an innocent person and I had to turn a blind eye or put it aside for what I was told was the greater good."

Midoriya looked him directly in the eyes. "It was wrong. They were wrong."

"You're right," Todoroki replied without hesitation. "But we have to wait or we could risk them killing her or worse."

Finally, Midoriya's shoulders dropped and he looked down at his feet. "Okay."

Bakugou gazed at the warehouse over the top of the car and, for one of the first times in his life, thought, _I'm sorry._

* * *

Sleeping upright and tied to a chair should've been impossible, but exhaustion won out every time. Uraraka was violently jerked out of a restless sleep when she felt hands tightly grab her arms. Even though she knew it was useless, she struggled to get out of the grip, squirming as much as possible with what little wiggle room she had. The handcuffs had rubbed the skin around her wrists raw, causing blood to slowly drip onto the floor, but her pulling hadn't seemed to do much to the arms of the chair.

Unable to speak with the tape over her mouth, all Uraraka could do was grunt and growl as the rough hands pulled on her until finally the person slapped her in the face. She went still, her head twisted to the side, lights bursting in her eyes despite the blindfold. Even though she couldn't see, she knew from the sudden violence that it wasn't Shindo. He might've implied violence and torture and had even kidnapped her, but so far, besides tilting her head to get a picture of her face, he hadn't hurt her. He didn't seem the type.

Maybe he'd finally been forced to bring someone else in to do the dirty work.

The attacker grabbed her by the hair and jerked on it hard, straining her neck even further. An involuntary whimper slipped out of her from behind the tape, but she fell silent again. She'd suffered worse pain.

"Listen here," a man hissed. "I'm done playing games and being nice. There's no more time. Do you understand?"

Uraraka didn't budge or give him any indication that she did or agreed with his terms. He pulled on her hair tighter, pulling a few strands out. Tears leaked out of her eyes, but still, she didn't make a sound. He could go screw himself for all she cared. Of course, she might not feel nearly as brave if he actually laid into her. When another hand latched around her throat, she tensed. She was already struggling to breathe as it was through only her nose. More oxygen deprivation would do her little good in fending off a brutal interrogation.

" _Do you understand_?" he repeated.

When Uraraka begrudgingly nodded her head, he let go of her throat and ripped the tape off her mouth. The first thing she should've done was breathe. Instead, she spit in the man's face and gasped out, "Fuck you," which earned her another slap to the face that sent the chair reeling sideways. She slammed into the ground hard, her shoulder damn near dislocating, which hurt like hell. At least she could rub her face on the concrete in order to scoot the blindfold up a little just enough to see partially out of one eye.

Just as she'd guessed and figured out the second he talked, her new guard wasn't Shindo. She didn't recognize the man, but the fatigues he wore along with his build suggested some sort of military background. Also, unless he was a particularly skilled actor, his accent pegged him as an American. It wasn't what she expected. She thought perhaps a foreign government had paid off Shindo to betray his country, but would they have also hired Americans for the job to catch Bakugou?

The man grabbed her arm and roughly jerked her and the chair back upright. A swishing sound caught Uraraka's attention, bringing her eyes to rest on the switchblade knife he'd produced. However, his other hand now held the key to her handcuffs. "If you try to fight me, I will end this quickly."

"And lose your leverage?" Uraraka countered, trying to calm her racing heart. "What is this? Ameature hour?"

"Sometimes you have to cut your losses."

Before Uraraka could question him, an explosion from somewhere in the building rattled them. The ceiling light about her swung back and forth like a pendulum, light swirling around the room strangely, and dust drifted lazily to the floor. A few seconds later, gunshots echoed through the air from multiple types of guns. What the hell was going on? Were they under attack?

Uraraka whipped her head around in the direction of the fight, but locked away in the small back room, there was nothing for her to see. "What-?"

"Shit, shit, we wasted too much fucking time with you." The man advanced on her, raising the knife. She tried to scoot the chair back to get away and cried out, but nothing stopped him from grabbing her by the chin and tilting her head up to expose her neck. He was going to cut her throat. He was going to silence her. She'd seen too much - heard too much - this was it - he was-

A gunshot cracked through the air. A shocked expression came over her assailant's face before he crumpled face first into the ground, the knife and key clattering uselessly to the ground. Uraraka sucked in a gulp of air, relief swarming over her, only to freeze when she dropped her head and connected eyes with Shindo. The gun in his hand was still smoking as he eyed her would-be killer with disdain.

"So much for the best of the best," he sighed as he reholstered his gun.

Uraraka gawked at him. "What are you doing?"

"They told me that they hired professionals, but half of them lose their shit at the first sign of things going downhill." Shindo sounded miffed, like he was complaining about something as normal as the weather. He stepped over to the body and kicked the knife away before reaching down to pick up the keys. "I spend days being questioned by these overgrown buffoons and they're the ones ready to cut and run at the slightest notice. They're no better than the cheap ass mercenaries they send overseas."

"Shindo, what's going on?" Uraraka demanded.

"We're leaving," Shindo explained vaguely as he unlocked her handcuffs.

"What do you mean leaving?" The gunfire sounded closer now, but it was hard to tell in here. The metal threw off all the acoustics. "What's happening?"

After undoing her ankle bindings, Shindo hoisted her to her feet. Uraraka was by no means weak, but after being strapped in that chair with little to no food and water for so long, her knees wobbled and her legs almost buckled out from underneath her. Shindo caught her against his chest, as he had done when he'd drugged her. Almost gently, he helped her back to her feet and looked her in the eyes.

"Your murdering little boyfriend showed up," he told her, "but he didn't come alone."

Her heart skipped a beat. "Midoriya?"

Shindo grimaced. "If only that was it." He used one pair of handcuffs to bind her wrists together. "Not gonna lie: Bakugou really surprised me. You made more of an impression on him than I could've ever imagined."

She had no time to process the explanation before Shindo dragged her out of the room. He pulled his gun out again, keeping a sharp eye out. The gunshots and explosions were louder now, along with people screaming whenever a bullet struck them. Her eyes darted and head swung as she tried to make sense of what was going on, but it was hard to tell when she had to focus on not collapsing on her face. She even lost a shoe in the process, but that didn't stop him.

Bakugou was here - so was Midoriya. Had someone else come too? But who? Kirishima? He didn't seem like the type that would get directly involved in a gunfight. No, he just sold the means to them. What the hell was going on back there? Why did it sound like a full-fledged fight between countless people going on? The only other time she'd heard anything like this had been in a movie. She'd thought it unrealistic.

It turned out she was wrong.

Furious as she was at Midoriya for doing something so reckless and career tarnishing as this - not to mention illegal - the further Shindo carried her away from the sounds of the fight, the more her heart began to race. He wasn't like Bakugou. This kind of life and fight wasn't made for him. Bakugou should've known better than to bring him here. He had to know she would never forgive him if something happened to Midoriya, even if he did manage to save her.

When Shindo kicked a door open, cold air swarmed over her. It was night, giving them the cover of darkness, but Uraraka still spotted the sleek, black car they were heading for. "Wait!" She dug her heels into the ground in an attempt to hinder him. "Shindo, stop!"

"Stop fighting, Uraraka!" Shindo snapped, jerking on her hard enough to trip her up and nearly cause her to do a faceplant. "If you would just listen to me-"

Uraraka stumbled into his chest in an attempt to stand up - and also get closer to him. Frustrated and distracted by the failure of his plot, he didn't consider her much of a threat since she'd been tied up for a while. True, she did feel weak and it wouldn't take much to overpower her, but all she needed was an opening. That tiny slip underestimating her gave her just enough leeway. The moment he moved to help her up again, she lurched forward and grabbed the gun with her hands despite them being cuffed.

"Fuck! Stop!"

He squeezed the trigger in the scuffle, the bullet striking the ground near her feet. He had a better grip on it since he wasn't cuffed, but she refused to let go. Using all her strength, she shoved their arms into the air, another gunshot going off above them like a signal, and then kicked him directly in the shin where she knew a sensitive nerve would be. The pain shooting up his leg caught him off guard and he buckled on one knee, the movement allowing the gun to slip out of his grasp. Before he could grab her again, she pistol-whipped him hard in the jaw and then stumbled back out of his reach.

Panting heavily, Uraraka aimed the gun at him. "It's over. You're done for after what you did."

Instead of fighting or arguing, Shindo fell down into a sitting position and leaned back with his arms behind him. "You really think that, don't you?" A tired but amused smile touched his lips as he tilted his head back and let out a sigh. "God, you're such a good person. It kills me, Uraraka. It really does. To have seen and been through so much shit and still be that naive and hopeful - it's beautiful."

His relaxed reaction upon having the upper hand turned on him didn't make any sense. Nothing did. He'd saved her life after kidnapping her. He didn't even appear concerned that she was pointing a gun at him. Uraraka furrowed her brow. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Uraraka!" a familiar voice cried out.

"I've got him!" Uraraka called back without taking her eyes off of Shindo.

"Who-?" Midoriya skidded to a halt beside her. His hand never quite reached her shoulder, not when he saw who she was pointing a gun at and keeping cornered. "Shindo?"

Their colleague of so many years waved a hand. "Hey, welcome to the party. You look like you're having fun."

"Why would you…?" Midoriya's voice was so betrayed, the expression on his face so hurt, that Uraraka wanted to pull him into a hug and she had been the one kidnapped. The two agents stared at each other, a thousand things unsaid, but Shindo gave nothing away with his mild expression. Did he even feel guilty over what he'd done? "I don't get it. Shinso checked you twice."

"I've worked with him for long enough to know how he works," Shindo pointed out.

Now that she wasn't alone in pining Shindo down, Uraraka peered at Midoriya to give him a closer look. Her heart shot right into her throat. There were multiple holes in his shirt from gunshots, but all had pierced a bulletproof vest. She could tell he was having difficulty breathing, having most likely broken a rib or two from the force of the bullets, and there was blood pouring down the side of his face where one had grazed his head. His sleeve was torn as well from what looked like slashes from a knife, more blood dripping from his fingertips. But he was alive.

And the warehouse had gone quiet behind them.

"What did you do?" Uraraka demanded.

Midoriya met her eyes and blinked placidly. "The right thing - not the proper one."

Uraraka opened her mouth to argue, but then Bakugou's rough voice cut through the air. "Fucking idiot Suit, I told you not to run off and what did you do? You could've gotten yourself fucking killed and Uraraka would have-"

He stopped when Uraraka turned around to face at him, as if she'd frozen him on the spot with a single look. He looked even worse than Midoriya somehow, like he'd taken the brunt of the attack. When he took a few steps toward her, he limped, but then he shoved through the pain to run to her. Before she knew it, he scooped her in his arms and held her against his chest. With Midoriya watching over Shindo, she let herself be taken in by Bakugou's warmth and strong presence. One hand slid through her hair to the back of her head as she pressed her wet face into his shoulder while the other gripped the material of her shirt at the small of her back.

"What were you thinking, Round Face, getting kidnapped like that?" Bakugou murmured for only her to hear. "You had to know that would drive me mad."

"It wasn't like I did it on purpose," Uraraka mumbled into his shoulder. She lifted her head slightly to angle her face into the crook of his neck, her hot breath warm against his skin, the smell of sweat, blood, smoke, and gun residue melting into a scent that was simply Bakugou. She could've recognized this anywhere.

Bakugou pulled away, unraveling himself from her, only to cup her face. His eyes roved over her to assess any injuries, narrowing when he noticed the redness of her cheeks from being slapped and hitting the ground. She almost shivered when he ran a thumb over her lips, taking note of the sticky residue on her skin leftover from the tape. She must have looked like absolute hell - her hair oily and flat, her cheap makeup smudged, her clothes wrinkled and smelly - but he gazed at her like she was something to treasure.

Finally, once he was decided he'd had enough, he dropped his hands. Without looking away from her, Bakugou asked, "Is that your mole?"

"Yes," Midoriya replied grimly.

In a flash, Bakugou stepped past her and aimed a harsh kick at Shindo's side, but Uraraka grabbed onto his arm and pulled him back. The tip of his shoe barely connected with Shindo, who rolled out of the way.

"He's not worth it!" Uraraka exclaimed, holding him back as much as she could.

"Like hell he isn't!" Bakugou snarled as he went from another kick. "He kidnapped you! Nearly got you killed! At least when I left the CIA, it was for something."

Shindo sneered. "Oh, please, don't act all high and mighty. You became a paid killer."

"The government already made me one," Bakugou shot back. "I just wasn't on their dime anymore."

Uraraka stepped in between them and pressed her hands against Bakugou's chest. "Stop it, please! For me!" It was a cheap shot, but one that forced Bakugou to simmer down. She hadn't been sure it would work and was somewhat surprised to find it did. He sure as hell didn't look pleased about it, that pissed off fire still in his eyes and his body tense, but he stopped. "He'll get what's coming to him. That's what matters."

A bark of laughter escaped Shindo. "You still don't get it."

"Get what?" Uraraka questioned. She kept one hand on Bakugou's chest as she turned around, unsure if he would try to kill Shindo again.

"You think I betrayed our beloved country," Shindo said, "when in fact I'm just the most loyal one of us all." Bakugou stiffened underneath her hand, going strangely still and quiet. She looked from him back to Shindo, who closed his eyes and let out a breath. "Who do you think hired me? Who do you think had the means to fool Shinso? Who do you think had the funding for all of this venture?"

"I don't…" But she did. Uraraka didn't know much about Bakugou's history as it had been scrubbed. She knew there was more than what was on paper. Midoriya's psychological profile for him was one point, but it also brought up the blank periods in Bakugou's past that they knew little about. His skill set, his training, his connections. There were few people who could come out like that without a little help and guidance. "You're lying."

"He's not."

Uraraka jumped at the sound of another unfamiliar voice, gripping the gun tighter and whirling around to aim it at the newcomer, only for Bakugou to grab her wrist. She glanced at him questioningly. He nodded his head and slowly pushed her hand back down as a red and white-haired man stepped out of the shadows. She wasn't sure how he'd managed to blend in looking like that in the first place. Red blood matted the white part of his hair, but it didn't seem to be his. Out of the three, he looked the least injured.

"I still can't believe you're here, Todoroki." Shindo whistled and shook his head. "You really did bring out the big guns, although I am a little surprised by Midoriya. I've never seen you get in a fight like that. Shame it had to be like this. Ah, well, I guess none of us are going to keep our jobs after this. At least I get something out of it."

Midoriya pressed a hand against his head, smearing the blood even more. "Shut up."

"Don't be so sour," Shindo said as he pushed himself to his feet. "It's not like I enjoyed doing this - like I wanted to betray all of you. Don't get me wrong - the pay off was very, very nice - but I still didn't want it to end this way." He shrugged. "Orders are orders, you know?"

"Shut up!" Midoriya shouted as he launched himself at Shindo. Holding Bakugou back already, Uraraka didn't have the ability to stop Midoriya too. He landed a solid punch right in Shindo's face, knocking him back. "You could've killed her, you bastard! Left her to be tortured for information! How could you do that?" He would've struck Shindo again if Todoroki hadn't grabbed Midoriya around the middle and pull him off him. "This is bullshit! You shouldn't get to hide behind this! Fuck that! It's not right!"

Shindo gingerly rubbed his jaw and winced. "What's not right is a cold-blooded murderer like Katsuki Bakugou getting to walk free because he told a few dirty, little secrets." He glared furiously even as Midoriya continued to struggle in Todoroki's ironclad grip. "Funny how you're so quick to buddy up to him when I don't have any blood on my hands. Then again, considering what you did to save Uraraka, maybe you're not so different or good after all."

Todoroki let go of Midoriya, who shrugged his arms and then walked away to take a few breaths. She didn't know who this guy was, but it was damn near impossible to get a read on him. A part of her was almost certain he was five seconds away from shooting Shindo right between the eyes as he assessed him impassively. Another part of her wasn't sure he gave a shit about what had transpired tonight or what he'd heard. The only thing she thought she knew was that he didn't seem surprised, as if everything played out as he'd expected.

Uraraka took a deep breath. "What do we do now?"

Bakugou grabbed her hand still holding him back. "Get the hell out of here before the CIA decides to bomb the fuck out of this place for good measure to cover up any loose ends."

"What?" Uraraka blanched. "They'd really do that?"

Todoroki shrugged. "What wouldn't they do to get what they want? Killing us would be the simplest option. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a jet in route."

"But where are we gonna go?" Uraraka asked, feeling dizzy and overwhelmed. She hated admitted any sort of weakness, but this whole thing was beginning to get to her. She felt like she could sleep for days.

Bakugou must have noticed her trembling because he wrapped an arm around her waist and then turned to Todoroki, a disgruntled look on his face. "I'll pay you back."

"Oh?" Todoroki tilted his head. "How's that?"

"By not killing you when we're this is all over," Bakugou answered with a sharp grin.

"I don't know," Todoroki hummed thoughtfully. "I always thought the threat hanging over my head was kind of exhilarating." There was clearly a lot she had missed out on and didn't know between them, but Uraraka had neither the energy nor desire to question it right now. "Okay, fine, but if you damage anything…"

Bakugou rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I know. You break it, you buy it." He nodded his head in Shindo's direction. "You got a place for him until we're able to contact the right people?"

Todoroki gave him an unimpressed look and deadpanned, "You think I'm going to have a safehouse with an area to hold and interrogate captives?"

She briefly connected eyes with Shindo, but instead of fear, he mostly looked resigned to his fate. Midoriya slunk back to them, tail tucked between his legs, and smiled reassuringly at her. It was hard to tell if it helped or not. So much had happened while she was trapped here and she hated it. She hated having to be rescued. She hated the fact that Midoriya had washed his career and life down the drain for her. She hated that Bakugou had nearly died and she hated that she wanted to stay in his arms for as long as possible. She wanted him close and she didn't want to let go and she just…

My god, what had she fallen into when she allowed Bakugou so close to her? Uraraka didn't know, but she was certain she would find out.


End file.
